Ruth C. Garraway, 94
Ruth Constance Garraway, who lived in Springs and East Hampton for about 40 years, died on Nov. 4 at the Rutland Healthcare and Rehab Center in Rutland, Vt., where she had moved two years ago. Her daughter Tammy Brown lives in Rutland. Mrs. Garraway was 94.
Born Ruth Tessaro on Feb. 6, 1920, in Queens, she was the youngest child of Americus Benjamin Tessaro and the former Jessie Rome. She grew up in Richmond Hill, graduating from Richmond Hill High School in 1937, and then took courses at Brooklyn College, though family finances did not allow her to graduate. She was nevertheless very well read, said her daughter Judith Samuelson, adding that her mother was a talented pianist, with dreams when she was young of studying at Juilliard. She taught piano as her daughters were growing up.
She was married to William C. Winchell on Nov. 1, 1940. They lived together for 30 years, in Queens Village from 1945 to 1953 and then in Massapequa. She worked as a clerk at the Plainedge Public Library from 1969 to 1973, and helped bring children’s theater to Massapequa with a committee of friends.
The Winchells divorced in 1970. On Dec. 15, 1972, she married Frederick C. Garraway, and the couple moved to the South Fork the following year to be closer to her brother Ben Tessaro and his longtime partner, Paul Karish, who lived on Cross Highway in Amagansett. The Garraways bought a house on Glade Road in Springs while it was under construction.
Mrs. Garraway worked briefly at White’s Drug Store in Montauk and did clerical work for a time at the East Hampton Library, but she devoted most of her time to volunteer work, for Guild Hall, the Children’s Museum of the East End, the South Fork Natural History Museum, and the Amagansett Historical Society. She volunteered also at the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society’s Bargain Box thrift shop, happily pricing books in the basement or working in the bookshop with her friend Ruth Cohen.
She loved to dance, often with her brother Ben. Ms. Samuelson remembered that about 15 years ago, on the occasion of her grandson’s wedding, she had been feeling ill, but the moment the band struck up she went out on the dance floor “and had to be dragged away.” She also enjoyed card and board games and walking. Ms. Samuelson said her mother was an outgoing woman whose friends and family always came first. “She had many, many friends, from people who she embraced out here but going back to people she went to high school with.” Mrs. Garroway was a good-looking woman, said her daughter, who smiled all the time. “Her smile is what everyone commented on.”
Mr. Garraway died in 1989. Three years later, after inheriting her brother’s house, Mrs. Garraway moved to Amagansett, where she lived with Ms. Samuelson, who remains there. In 2011, Mrs. Garraway moved to the Westhampton Care Center, and the year after to the facility in Rutland.
In addition to her daughters, she is survived by a stepdaughter, Jeanne Marie Gartland of Mendham, N.J. Three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a niece and nephew survive as well. Her son, Meric William Winchell, died in 1958 at the age of 8.
Funeral services will be held at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church on Nov. 23, the Rev. Steven Howarth officiating. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the church’s Scoville Hall Building Fund, P.O. Box 764, Amagansett 11930, or to the Amagansett satellite of the East Hampton Food Pantry, 219 Accabonac Road, East Hampton 11937.