Rosemary Kaufman
Rosemary Ryan Kaufman, who lived in East Hampton for over 25 years and had gone on too many cruises for her family to count, died on Christmas Day at the Tiffany Hall Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla. She had developed sepsis in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, when she was without power for two days, and had been in declining health since. She was 95.
She was born in Bowling Green, Ky., on Sept. 25, 1922, to Joseph Kerlin Ryan and the former Lucille Eubanks. Her family soon moved to New York, where she attended elementary school, initially in Brooklyn, then at P.S. 101 in Forest Hills. She then attended the Cherry Valley School, now Garden City High School, and went on to obtain a degree from Ward Belmont College.
Mrs. Kaufman’s family said she was their “all-round rock star” who was a world traveler and active in every community she called home. As a young woman, she was athletic and enjoyed dancing, basketball, and playing golf. As an adult, “her knitting bag was always by her side,” as she knitted sweaters and hats for family and friends.
Mrs. Kaufman’s first husband was Patrick J. Mahoney, whom she met after graduating from college and while working on Wall Street in a clerical position. They were married on June 3, 1950, and settled in Garden City with Mr. Mahoney’s sons, Edward Patrick Mahoney, who has since died, and Patrick J. Mahoney Jr., who lives in East Hampton. Her husband died in 1966.
The couple had three children who survive, Kerlin Walton Mahoney, now of Mineola, Myles Brian Mahoney, who lives in Manchester Center, Vt., and Stephen Ryan Mahoney, who also lives in East Hampton. They lost one child as an infant, Brian George Mahoney.
After Mr. Mahoney’s death, Mrs. Kaufman went to work in the insurance industry, in what would now be called human resources. Her son Stephen Ryan Mahoney said, “She was really good with people. She would make friends with someone waiting for the light to change.”
Mrs. Kaufman was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, often carrying the flag in parades. She also was a member of the Kentucky Society of the D.A.R.
In 1972, she married Phillip Robert Kaufman. They made their home in Massapequa, while building a second home in Stuart, Fla. In Florida, she became a founding member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Palm City, and sang in the church choir. Mr. Kaufman died in 2003.
It was through her son Stephen Ryan Mahoney and later her stepson Patrick J. Mahoney Jr. that she was introduced to East Hampton. Stephen Mahoney had settled here, running a landscaping business before starting a tree farm on Long Lane, and she began summering with him and his family. She was an advocate for a large wind turbine on her son’s property, attending East Hampton Town Hall meetings and trying to educate others about alternate sources of energy.
Her granddaughter Tess Ryan Mahoney recalled her teenage years with her grandmother yesterday. She said that on many occasions her grandmother would take her and her brother Truman Bell Mahoney out in their father’s truck. Her grandmother, Tess Mahoney said, would put her in the driver’s seat, and have her drive up and down the long lanes between the trees. Driving wasn’t the only thing her grandmother taught her to drive on the farm, Ms. Mahoney said; she taught her to drive golf balls, too. She also taught her granddaughter to shoot a bow and arrow. “We had a lot of fun. We would go to Georgica Beach,” Ms. Mahoney said. However, whenever “Judge Judy came on TV, it was time to retire to the house to watch the show.”
Mrs. Kaufman loved to dress in hot pink or electric lime colors, complete with matching handbags, her granddaughter said. She was never hard to spot.
After Mr. Kaufman’s death, her family nudged her to try to reach a high-school sweetheart. They had planned to marry when World War II intervened and he became an Army Air Corps pilot. When she was in her 80s, they reconnected, moving in together until his death in 2013.
Mrs. Kaufman was cremated. A service will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, 4484 S.W. Citrus Boulevard, Palm City, Fla., on Feb. 10 at 11 a.m. Donations in her memory were suggested to the May Institute’s Philanthropy Office, 41 Pacella Park Drive, Randolph, Mass. 02368.