Sandra Roman

Sandra Roman was well known as a fish vendor, not just locally but also at Manhattan’s greenmarket in the Meatpacking District, and other markets, over the course of a career that spanned more than 20 years. Ms. Roman, a longtime Montauk resident who lived most recently with a daughter in Medford, died there on April 17 after an illness that began four years ago with complications from surgery. She was 77.

Born on Jan. 31, 1939, in Canton, Ohio, Ms. Roman was the second oldest of nine children of Kenneth Recktenwalt and the former Leona Evans. She grew up in Canton and graduated from William McKinley High School in 1957.

Two years later, she married Donald Roman. They had six children before divorcing in 1974. Ms. Roman relocated first to Florida and then, in 1976, to Montauk, where she plunged right into the hamlet’s seafood industry. She cultivated business relationships with captains of commercial fishing boats, and would buy, cut, and package fish the night before the markets opened, then drive to the city at dawn to begin selling at 7 a.m.

In the early ’80s, her family said, she began bringing her fish to the greenmarket at Gansevoort Street, selling striped bass, tuna, cod, whiting, monk, and more from open-air tables. She later expanded her business to the markets at St. Mark’s Place and Union Square. In the late ’80s, a newspaper published a profile of Ms. Roman, calling her the “Union Square Fish Lady of Montauk.” 

As the seafood industry changed and local sellers were replaced by large enterprises, Ms. Roman began working at the Multi Aquaculture Systems fish farm in Amagansett. She never fully recovered from surgery for a knee replacement in 2012. 

She leaves four daughters, Kathleen Roman of Medford, Dawn Roman of Montauk, Renee Rose of Alliance, Ohio, and Lynn Jackson of Nebo, N.C., and two sons, John Roman of Wellington, Fla., and Donald Roman of New Middletown, Ohio. She is also survived by five sisters, Linda Bartram of Ohio, Cathy Werle of Connecticut, MaryJo Recktenwalt of Arizona, Gretchen Thomazin of Ohio, and Sharron Recktenwalt Harper of Ohio, and one brother, Michael Recktenwalt of Ohio. Twelve grandchildren survive as well.

Ms. Roman’s life will be celebrated in private ceremonies in Montauk and Ohio