Rosa Rojas

Rosa Rojas “taught about giving and led by example,” her family wrote. She was “a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, who had a deep faith in God.” Mrs. Rojas died of lung cancer on Saturday, at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She was 82.

Born in Fusagasuga, Colombia, on April 13, 1934, she came to the United States at the age of 21 as a diplomat working with the president of the Colombian Coffee Federation, and fell in love with New York City, said her daughter Carmen Kenrich. 

She became a U.S. resident and went to school to learn English in Manhattan, where she met her future husband, Rafael Rojas. They were married on Nov. 25, 1961. 

Mr. Rojas worked for Jacob Kaplan, the head of the Welch’s Grape Juice company, whose estate on Route 114 in East Hampton is now the headquarters of the local Nature Conservancy chapter. The Rojas family spent summers in East Hampton and winters in Manhattan until 1976, when they moved here permanently, to a house on Long Lane. 

Mrs. Rojas loved to tend her gardens and to cook. “She really nurtured her family,” Ms. Kenrich said. 

She is survived by her husband, who lives in East Hampton, Ms. Kenrich, of Winchester, Mass., another daughter, Elizabeth Silva of Aquebogue, five grandchildren, a brother in Queens, a sister in Bogota, and many nieces and nephews. She was a member of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, where a service was held on Tuesday. Burial followed at the church cemetery on Cedar Street. 

Memorial contributions have been suggested to the church, at 79 Buell Lane, East Hampton 11937; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude.org, or the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center, attention Diane Patrizio, 128 Springs-Fireplace Road.