The Star Goes To The Pitts Wedding

   There was a wedding at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Montauk on Saturday, not a surprising scene on a beautiful fall day. A polished car waited outside the church for the happy couple. Inside, the organ played. Children squirmed in their fancy clothes as the procession moved down the aisle toward the altar. A typical wedding - except that both the bride, who wore a corsage of flowers to match the season, and the bridegroom, who wore a gray jacket that matched his hair, were 90 years old and were celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary with a renewal of vows.

   Three of the bridegroom's four sisters were on hand as they had not been seven decades before when the same Montauk couple, Frederick "Gus"

   They remember Montauk as a place of rolling hills covered only by grass.

   Pitts and the former Hattie Poirier, were first married at St. Philomena Church in East Hampton, now called Most Holy Trinity.

   The date was Sept. 27, 1926, and the wedding was held in East Hampton because there was no Roman Catholic Church in Montauk at the time. Nor was there much family in attendance because neither exactly approved of the union - thought it would never last. That's why on the occasion of their 50th anniversary (20 years ago), they pulled out all the stops - complete with family, even a garter for the blushing bride.

Montauk Past

   Saturday's renewed vows again drew the couple's extended family around them. The relatives included citizens of a Montauk past, whose memories include a small fishing village on the banks of Fort Pond Bay.

   They remember Montauk as a place of rolling hills covered only by grass. Some might even recall the sight of the developer Carl Fisher riding a horse over his newly purchased land. There were a few at the church on Saturday, including the bride, who remember their Nova Scotia homeland. The bride remembers that the Montauk Manor was under construction the year she arrived.

   Hattie Poirier came to Montauk from Nova Scotia in 1926. Later the same year she would marry the young fisherman who had got himself a boat he called the Marie II on which he began his career as a charter fisherman. As a young man he'd fished out of Montauk with his father, Benjamin Pitts. The couple lived in the Montauk fishing village on the bay until the 1938 hurricane destroyed it. They moved to Amagansett for a time, but then resettled in the Shepherd's Neck section of Montauk.

Longtime Friends

   Vinnie Grimes, who was at the church to videotape the whole proceeding, recalled working as a mate for the bridegroom. He was a good fisherman, Mr. Grimes recalled, like his cousins, Ralph and Clancy. The Grimeses are cousins on the Pitts side of the family.

   The McDonalds and the Eckers were represented. They were the kind of friends that became like family a long time ago. Mary Jane McDonald had been a lifelong friend of Hattie Pitts. Her daughters, Frances Ecker, Celina Seitz, and Eva Collins, were there on Saturday. So were Marie McMahon and Pat Schumacher, the couple's daughters. "I am so proud," said Mrs. McMahon.

   Captain Pitts's sisters, Vangy Burke, Mabel Wilson, and Angela George, were there. A fourth sister, Kathryn Loeffer, could not attend.

Good Works

   Also there to watch Mr. and Mrs. Pitts walk down the aisle for a fourth time were Mrs. Burke's daughters, Margaret Lochman and Emily Cullum, and her son, Buddy Burke. Mary Ellen Bennett and Nancy King, Mabel Wilson's daughters, came to watch the renuptials as well. The grandchildren, Annette Anderson and Nancy Snyder, watched in amazement. David Snyder walked down the aisle out in front of his great-grandparents.

   The Rev. Raymond Nugent was joined by the Rev. John Traynor, former pastor of the St. Therese Church, in the formalities leading up to the vows.

   The Rev. Salvitore Allesandro, formerly of Sag Harbor, also presided. Later at the reception, Father Allesandro sang.

   Father Nugent praised the couple's faith and spoke of the good works still undertaken by Captain and Mrs. Pitts. Captain Pitts continues to serve as a communion minister during Sunday morning mass, and both Pittses regularly visit sick and house-bound neighbors. A letter was read that had been sent by John McGann, Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, who wrote that the couple's example shone brighter than "their Montauk Lighthouse."

   Dick Vander Platt waited by the door. He was there to drive the Pittses from the church to Hewitt's Ruschmeyer's restaurant for the reception. He had come from New Jersey and had driven Mr. and Mrs. Pitts from the church on the occasion of both their 50th and 60th wedding jubilees. He explained that he was an early charter customer of Captain Pitts and had remained loyal to him until the captain's retirement at the age of 62.

   There were tears when the bride and bridegroom gave their vows - and a few snickers when they pledged, after 70 years together, to be faithful.