Nancy Janssen

Nancy Janssen, one of the first female members of the Montauk Fire Department, serving as an emergency medical technician, died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease on Jan. 20 in Lancaster, Tex. She was 76 and had been ill for the last five years.

Her family will remember her as a kind, happy, loving person who enjoyed the outdoors and being around her eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, said her daughter Dawn Stavola of Montauk. “She was really into the grandkids and great-grandkids,” Ms. Stavola said.

Nancy Theodelinda Janssen was born on Nov. 28, 1938, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood to Arthur Olsen and the former Erma Hatter. She grew up there and briefly lived in New Jersey before moving to Montauk. She worked as a bookkeeper, first for the Montauk Marine Basin and later for Marshall and Sons, a service station and fuel oil delivery company, also in Montauk. “She really enjoyed both jobs,” her daughter said.

In addition to Ms. Stavola, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, Ms. Janssen’s other three children survive: Kim Clark of Lancaster, Michelle VonBargen of Bayville, and Christian Janssen of Central Point, Ore. A sister, Judy Andrade of Sterling, Conn., also survives.

Ms. Janssen was cremated. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Her family has suggested memorial contributions to the Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington, D.C. 20090-6011, or alz.org.