Raymond H. Halsey of the Green Thumb

Raymond Hildreth Halsey, a farmer who owned the Green Thumb farm stand in Water Mill, died on Friday at home on Halsey Lane in that hamlet. He was 88. His family said he had heart problems.

One of the last of a generation of potato farmers who found ways to adapt to the changing times in order to stay in business, Mr. Halsey was a 10th-generation descendant of Thomas Halsey, one of the original English colonists of Southampton.

His ancestors on both sides of his family fought in the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the Civil War, during which his grandfather Charles Andrew Halsey was wounded in Sherman’s march to Atlanta, and his great-uncle Silas Edmund Halsey was killed in battle in South Carolina.

In the early 1900s, two Topping sisters from Sagaponack married two of the Halsey brothers from Water Mill, and they built houses next to one another on Halsey Lane, raising their families and farming together. Raymond Halsey was the youngest child born to David Edmund Halsey and Elsie Topping Halsey at their house on Halsey Lane on Jan. 20, 1926. He graduated from Southampton High School in 1944 and went on to serve in the merchant marine. His family remembered how Mr. Halsey, always proud of his country, wore an American flag pin on his many baseball caps or the lapel of his sport coat.

Mr. Halsey, described as a quiet, humble, and respectful man, had two passions — farming and his wife, his daughter Johanna Halsey said. As the Long Island potato industry declined, Mr. Halsey experimented with different products, including nursery stock and replacement heifers, sod, and pickles and cabbage for the wholesale market. In the early 1960s, story has it that Mr. Halsey was riding his tractor in one of the farm fields overlooking the increased traffic heading east on Montauk Highway when he first got the idea to open a roadside farm stand. He and his wife, the former Madeline (Peachie) Patton, opened a tiny operation with a small assortment of vegetables. His mother named it the Green Thumb.

Craig Claiborne, a well-known food editor and restaurant critic for The New York Times who lived in East Hampton, took a liking to the farm stand and offered his advice to the Halseys to sell little-known produce such as arugula, his daughter said. “He gently coached us,” she said.

They eventually began selling baked goods as well. Ms. Halsey’s blueberry muffins, which she baked at her parents’ house and took to the Green Thumb by walking through the field between the two places, were said to be John Steinbeck’s favorites.

The Halseys continued to revamp the business through the decades. In the late 1970s, they began farming organically, and in the 1990s and 2000s the Halseys began participating in farmers markets and community-supported agriculture programs. The Green Thumb remains family owned and operated by Mr. Halsey’s children and grandchildren, who are 11th and 12th-generation farmers.

“His love, energy, and devotion for his family and farm never wavered,” his family wrote.

Mr. and Mrs. Halsey had a beautiful love story that began, she said, in Southampton Hospital, of all places. He visited her sister, a nurse who was recovering from surgery, with a friend when the two met. A Riverhead native, she was 18, and he had recently returned as a 20-year-old merchant marine. The couple began courting soon after, and they were married two years later, on June 19, 1948.

“Madeline being Catholic and Ray a Presbyterian, their marriage caused quite a stir among their families; however their love, dedication, and respect for each other could not be reckoned with,” their family wrote.

Over their 66 years of marriage, they each stayed committed to their churches, going to separate services each Sunday but joining each other on special occasions. He was “a devoted member” of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church and was known to sing along with the choir, his family said.

“It’s hard to talk about my dad without my mom,” Johanna Halsey said. They were inseparable. Aside from raising four children and running a successful business together, in the winter months they enjoyed trips to the Caribbean, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand, where they loved meeting new people.

An active member of the community, Mr. Halsey was a 4-H leader and a member of the Long Island Farm Bureau, serving on the bureau’s various committees. He was a founder of the Water Mill Community Club and was instrumental in the purchase of the club’s large field, believing that the entire community should have access to an open park.

In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Patricia H. Wellen, and two sons, William Halsey and Lawrence Halsey, all of Water Mill. Twelve grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a sister, Mabel Santelle of Sagaponack, also survive, along with many nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by a brother, Abram Halsey of Water Mill, and a sister, Helen H. Barbour of Sagaponack.

A wake was held at the O’Connell Funeral Home in Southampton on Monday, followed by a funeral at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, which would have been Mr. Halsey’s 89th birthday. He was buried at Water Mill Cemetery.

The Halsey family has suggested memorial donations to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978, the Water Mill Community Club, P.O. Box 182, Water Mill 11976, or the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 3038, Bridgehampton 11932.