Virginia Stier, 85

Virginia Natalie Veronica Stier, a Montauk resident who was active in the community and known for her hospitality, died on Sunday, at Southampton Hospital. She was 85 years old and her death was attributed to natural causes.

Mrs. Stier was a volunteer, serving soup for many years at the clam chowder contest during the annual Montauk Chamber of Commerce fall festival and drinks to golfers during the annual Montauk Chamber of Commerce outing at the Montauk Downs fifth hole, which is near the house she and her husband, James G. Stier, purchased about 40 years ago. She also helped the volunteers in the garden area of the annual East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society Fair.

She was born on Dec. 23, 1930, in Flushing, Queens, to James A. Nicholson and the former Ellen Gilmore. She lived in Bayville while growing up and graduated from St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay in 1948.

She and Mr. Stier, whom she had met through mutual friends, were married in 1955. The couple had seven children, though two children, a son, Michael, and a daughter, Katrina, died in infancy. The family lived in Montclair, N.J., and were frequent visitors to the South Fork before buying their house in Montauk. During the 1970s, Mrs. Stier worked as a floor manager at Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The couple moved to Montauk full time in the late 1980s.

Mrs. Stier loved gardening, swimming, and traveling, her family said, and had visited Bermuda, Italy, and China. She was a dedicated member of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk, where the Rev. Tom Murray was to officiate at a Mass of Christian burial at 10 this morning.

One of Mrs. Stier’s daughters, Gretchen (Gigi) Callahan of Nantucket, Mass., described her mother as a strong and determined woman. Her friend Linda Barnds, whom she knew for 25 years, said, “She was one of a kind. She was classic, down to earth, and friendly with everybody. She will be missed.”

In addition to her husband and daughter Gretchen, she leaves another daughter, Heidi Barberio of Waltham, Mass., and three sons, Kenneth Stier of Brooklyn, Greg W. Stier of Albuquerque, and Gerard Stier of Hoboken, N.J., and five grandchildren.

Mrs. Stier will be buried following the Mass at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk. Memorial donations have been suggested to the Portsmouth Abbey School, 285 Cory’s Lane, Portsmouth, R.I. 02871.