Rosalie S. Wootten
Rosalie Strong Wootten of Taylors, S.C., an East Hampton native and member of one of the town’s founding families, died at home on Dec. 8 of a brain hemorrhage. She was 85.
The only girl in a family of four children, she was born in East Hampton on Sept. 25, 1927, the daughter of James Madison Strong and Flora Sweeting Strong, and was called Rose by her family.
Her great-grandfather was Capt. James G. Scott, who was the Montauk Lighthouse keeper for 25 years.
After graduating from East Hampton High School, she received a bachelor’s degree from Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y. Before earning a master’s degree in elementary education from the State University at Farmingdale, she was a student teacher in general science at Houghton Academy.
She taught for two years in Friendship, N.Y., and for three years in New Hyde Park before moving to Huntington in 1954. She began substitute teaching there in 1960. From 1964 to 1984 she taught at the Huntington Christian School in Huntington Station, where she eventually became assistant principal at the grade school.
A member of West Hills Baptist Church, she taught Sunday school and sang in the church choir. Ms. Wootten had a talent for music; she had perfect pitch and played piano and violin.
With her mother, she contributed to “The Gospel in Song,” a weekly radio program on WLNG in Sag Harbor that featured a different soloist each week. A cousin of her father’s, George Gould Strong, was a pianist who often accompanied “Big Edie” Beal, and she enjoyed many nights at an aunt’s house in East Hampton when he played piano and a group of cousins participated in sing-alongs.
She also enjoyed painting, crocheting, and reading romance novels.
Ms. Wootten is survived by her husband of 62 years, Robert C. Wootten of South Carolina, as well as the couple’s two sons, David R. Wootten of Friendswood, Tex., and Paul D. Wootten of Greenville, S.C. A brother, John Graham Strong of East Hampton, also survives.
She was predeceased by her other brothers, R. Thomas Strong, who was an East Hampton Town councilman, justice, and Suffolk County legislator, and Jim Strong, a real estate broker and the founder of the Strong Insurance Agency in East Hampton.
Jim Strong and a partner, Walter Hackett, started the Creme Queen ice cream stand on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, later called A&B Snowflake, and in the 1950s Ms. Wootten had a summer job there.
The Woottens moved from Long Island to the Greenville, S.C., area in 1985, and became charter members of Community Baptist Church.
A graveside service took place on Dec. 12 at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Greenville, the Rev. David Whitcomb officiating. A memorial service was held at Community Baptist Church in Greer, S.C.