Pearl Howard Leone, 95

Pearl Howard Leone of Osborne Lane, who came to East Hampton in 1943 to marry her first husband, David Howard, died of cardiopulmonary arrest on March 12 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. She had had dementia for five years. Ms. Leone was 95.

Ms. Leone, who loved to dance, met Mr. Howard when he was in the Navy at a dancehall in Erie, Pa., where she had gone with her boyfriend to whom she was engaged. Shortly after that chance encounter, Mr. Howard sent her a box of Valentine’s Day candy with an engagement ring in it. The rest, as they say, was history. The couple married in October 1943 and had a daughter, Dorothea H. Jaycox of East Hampton, who survives. Mr. Howard, who died in 1969, ran Howard’s Seafood on Gann Road, off Three Mile Harbor Road.

Ms. Leone was married again, in 1975, to John Leone, a big-band jazz musician and veteran of World War II who had played with the U.S. Coast Guard Band during the war. Fittingly, she and Mr. Leone went out dancing a lot, too, her daughter said. 

Ms. Leone was a familiar face around town, enjoying daily walks and working at Howard’s Seafood, at Rowe’s drug store at the corner of Newtown Lane and Main Street, and at Park Place Liquors, among other shops. She also was a Girl Scout leader for 12 years, heading up a troop that included her daughter and her daughter’s friends. 

Ms. Leone’s family back in Pennsylvania were of Russian descent, and she was raised as a member of a Russian Orthodox Old Believers church in Erie, Pa. 

Pearl Gauriloff Howard Leone was born on May 16, 1922, in Ellsworth, Pa., one of 10 children, five boys and five girls, of the former Anna Panamerova and Maxim Gauriloff, who worked for Bethlehem Steel. She grew up in Ellsworth and graduated from Ellsworth High School.

In addition to her daughter, her sister, Anita Delopitro of Erie, and many nieces and nephews survive. Her other siblings died before her. Two grandchildren, three great-children, and one great-great-grandchild survive as well.

Ms. Leone was cremated and her ashes buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery. Pastor Denise Allen of the East Hampton Methodist Church led a graveside service there on Sunday. 

Memorial donations have been suggested for the East Hampton Ambulance Association, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937.