Theresa A. Graf, 82
Theresa A. Graf, who with her sister, Margaret Graf, moved to East Hampton in 1993 to live on Boxwood Street with their brother Frank Graf, died in her sleep on Aug. 16 at the Southampton Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, where she had been for five weeks. She was 82 and had fallen earlier this summer.
After relocating from Corona, Queens, to her brother’s Boxwood Street house in the ’90s, Ms. Graf took to the community with gusto. She volunteered for the senior citizens service R.S.V.P. and enjoyed such annual events as fire department dinners, the Calvary Baptist Church barbecue, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s summer fair. She was also an eager chauffeur for friends going to these events and others.
Her family said Ms. Graf kept up with current events, reading The East Hampton Star and The New York Times, especially the Sunday Week in Review. Word games were among her pleasures, as were British television thrillers such as “Vera,” “George Gently,” and “Inspector Lewis.” Her family said she enjoyed Carlo Rossi burgundy, gardening, and tending her birdfeeders assiduously until her ability declined.
Ms. Graf was devoted to her family’s history and would frequently tell stories about her German-American parents as well as her grandmother and other relatives. Until the trip became burdensome, she and her sister visited friends in Corona annually. Her sister developed dementia and Ms. Graf lived with and took care of her until her death in 2014.
She was born on Nov. 11, 1935, in Corona to George Graf and the former Margaret Mueller. She attended Our Lady of the Sorrows School in Corona and Flushing High School, also in Queens. She was the youngest of seven siblings. In addition to Frank Graf and Margaret Graf, they were George Graf, August Graf, Sister St. George, and John Graf. They all died before her.
Ms. Graf had worked for the Dolcin Corporation and Arrow Shirts before taking a job as the secretary of Our Lady of the Sorrows Catholic Church, where she served under various pastors for 15 years.
After her brother Frank Graf started coming to Amagansett in the early 1950s, she did, too, spending many summer vacations at a house at the corner of Bluff Road and Atlantic Avenue owned by Ben Starkie, Frank Graf’s lifelong companion. Thomas Backen, a nephew, survives.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Sept. 15 at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Ms. Graf’s ashes will be buried in the church cemetery on Cedar Street.
Memorial donations have been suggested to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975, in honor of Barney, her cherished semi-feral cat.