Pauline Vigorita, 94

Pauline Vigorita, who had spent summers with her husband and children in a cottage on Gerard Drive in Springs since 1975, died on Saturday. She was 94.

Ms. Vigorita was of Neapolitan and Sicilian descent and never lived far from the sea, first in Brooklyn, then Long Beach, then on the shore of Gardiner’s Bay. She loved the scent of the ocean and bay and the wildlife, sunrises, sunsets, and full moons, her family said.

She was born on June 18, 1923, in Brooklyn to Vincent Sabella and the former Amelia Caserta, and attended Bay Ridge High School and Ladycliff College at West Point. She was an accomplished pianist and studied at Julliard. After World War II, she married a Navy veteran, Dr. John L. Vigorita, a Manhattan surgeon. He died in 1981.

Ms. Vigorita worked for many years as the manager in her husband’s medical office and was active in many Cabrini Hospital auxiliaries.

She reared four children in Bay Ridge, where she ran a needlepoint shop, Wool and Canvas, which became a social hub for many women in the neighborhood. She spoke Italian, Sicilian, and a bit of Yiddish and Norwegian, reflecting the diverse environment in which she grew up.

Ms. Vigorita was generous to family and friends, who fondly called her Nonna, and to her children’s friends. Knitting gifts was a joy, as was gardening. She was also a frequent visitor to the Springs Library.

In East Hampton, she was a volunteer for the Meals on Wheels food program and enjoyed attending the Metropolitan Opera’s live broadcasts at Guild Hall. She liked to travel as well, visiting five continents. She said that Italy and Israel were her favorite countries from among her trips.

Ms. Vigorita is survived by her children, Louis Vigorita of Ventura, Calif., Phyllis Mitchell of Wilmot, N.H., Vincent Vigorita of New York City, and Amelia Schirrippa of Springs. She died at the house belonging to Ms. Schirrippa and her husband, Dominic, on Hawthorne Street, where she had lived for 26 years when she was not at the Gerard Drive cottage. She is also survived by eight grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and a sister, Raffaela Bonventre of Douglaston, Queens.

She was buried in the family plot at Green River Cemetery in Springs in a private service.

Memorial donations have been suggested to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.