Phyllis Jane Yusko, 89

Phyllis Jane Yusko, who was for many years a friendly presence at a checkout counter at the East Hampton I.G.A., died last Thursday at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead. A Montauk resident, she had been treated for cancer quite a while ago and her health had been in decline for the last few years. She was 89.

One of six sisters, Ms. Yusko was born on Feb. 17, 1929, in Port Chester, N.Y., where her father, Joseph Cwik, and mother settled after immigrating from Poland. She grew up there and graduated from Port Chester High School. Her five sisters died before her.

Her son, Jeff Yusko of Wainscott, said his mother’s first husband had died young after serving in the Korean War and contracting tuberculosis. His surname was Bonneau, and their daughter, Kris Bonneau of Aquebogue, survives. Ms. Yusko then met and married Albert Yusko in Harrison, N.Y., near where she had grown up. 

Mr. Yusko said his parents married in 1959, “in a whirlwind,” and settled in Harrison. His father persuaded his mother to go to Montauk for a weekend although she had been reluctant to do so, her son said, and they spent a week there, eventually buying a house in 1966 and living there in the summer.

When his father died, in 1971, she and her children sold the house in Harrison and moved to Montauk year round.

Mr. Yusko said his mother had provided him with everything he needed as well as many things he did not need but wanted, all on her I.G.A. salary. “She was a very generous woman,” he said.

Ms. Yusko was happiest in the company of her children and four grandchildren, who survive, he said, and loved gardening and going out to lunch with friends. 

She was cremated and there was no formal ceremony. The family plans a small family memorial.