Ute von Engelhardt

Ute von Engelhardt, one of the first Pan American World Airways stewardesses and a longtime resident of East Hampton, where she worked at a number of well-known shops, died unexpectedly on Dec. 31 while visiting her sisters in Germany. She was 74 and had not been feeling well before leaving this country on a holiday visit.

Ms. von Engelhardt worked all over the world starting in the 1960s, and had been on flights with troops moving in and out of Vietnam. Known as Uta, she first came to the South Fork with her former husband. They had spent weekends in the Amagansett dunes before their divorce in 1999, when she moved to Amy’s Court in East Hampton. There, she was president of the homeowners association for almost 20 years.

After retiring from Pan Am, Ms. von Engelhardt was employed over the years at Victory Garden, Mecox Gardens, Hren’s, Gone Local, and the Wallace Gallery. She was interested in gardening, art, and antiques, and would often run tag sales for friends and would look after their properties. She also was an enthusiastic reader and an accomplished baker, a friend, Beth Volin, said, calling her “a force to be reckoned with.”

She was born a baroness on March 27, 1942, in Marne in northern Germany, near the North Sea. Her father died during World War II. Her remaining German relatives are her sisters, Gesche Krey of Sankt Margarethen and Isle Rohde of Wewelsfleth, both of which are near Hamburg, and several nieces and nephews. A funeral service was held at a church near her sisters’ residences.