Nancy E. O’Brien, 91
An East Hampton Village’s resident, Nancy E. O’Brien, died on April 24. She was 91, and had been ill with Alzheimer’s disease for a long time.
Mrs. O’Brien was born on Nov. 11, 1925, on Main Street, and continued to live in the village all her life. Her father, Raymond Mott, was a direct descendant of the Mott family from England, who arrived in East Hampton in the 19th century. A World War I veteran, he lived in Springs, and his name is listed on the Ashawagh Hall war monument there.
Her mother, Dehlia Quigley, was from Galway, Ireland. She was working in the kitchen of a house on Pudding Hill in East Hampton, when Raymond Mott arrived to deliver ice to the house. The couple had four children: Nancy, who was named for a grandmother, Nancy Miller Mott; Margaret Marcinski of Meriden, Conn., who died before her; Kathleen Potter of Virginia Beach, Va., and Raymond Mott of Mobile, Ala. both of whom survive.
When Mrs. O’Brien was 10, she lost sight in her right eye. Her daughter Lisa Wirth wrote that she never considered herself handicapped, instead pushing herself to try harder.
In 1944 she graduated from East Hampton High School and in 1947 married John T. O’Brien from Staten Island. They lived on Dayton Lane, where they raised their children, John R. O’Brien of Sagaponack, Maureen Hannibal of East Hampton, and Ms. Wirth, who lives in Wainscott. The O’Briens had been married for 49 years when Mr. O’Brien died, in 1996.
As a teenager, Mrs. O’Brien worked as a telephone operator. She stayed with the company for almost 20 years, leaving, as she liked to say, “just short of a pension.” In 1972, she began working for Mark, Fore & Strike on Main Street, East Hampton, where she remained for the next quarter-century, helping to dress well-healed locals and visitors, among them John Lennon, whom she famously advised not to wear bikini underwear with a white suit.
Later, she worked as a manager at the Ladies Village Improvement Society Bargain Box, helping to transform the thrift store into a beautiful boutique. She was 80 when she gave up her full-time job but continued to work in the community, the family said, as a “tireless volunteer.” She was a Girl Scout leader, a member of the American Cancer Society (winning its East End Volunteer award in 1990), and a member and secretary of the East Hampton Republican Club. As a young mother, she brought many Fresh Air Fund children from inner cities here in the summers to enjoy the beaches and woods. Year after year from the end of World War II, she donated blood to the Red Cross, until she was too frail to do so.
According to her family, Mrs. O’Brien dressed beautifully and cut a glamorous figure around town. She especially loved cashmere sweaters, they said.
Known for her sense of humor, she loved to tell the story of the playwright Philip Barry’s attending her wedding in 1947. His gift to the newlyweds was a copy of the script of “The Philadelphia Story,” which was promptly stolen from the couple’s convertible.
In addition to her three children and two siblings, she leaves six grandchildren. A funeral Mass was celebrated last Friday at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church here. Memorial contributions have been suggested for the church, at 57 Buell Lane, East Hampton 11937, or to East End Hospice, online at eeh.org.