Claudia Grace Walter, a longtime resident of Montauk who relocated to Estero, Fla., in 2014, died on March 6 of cancer. She was 86.
Mrs. Walter enjoyed gardening and taking long walks around Montauk. She loved dogs “and they loved her, as she was always packing treats” and “always prepared to make their day,” her family wrote. She was an enthusiastic swimmer, and Fort Pond Bay was a favorite destination.
Born in Queens on Feb. 25, 1937, to James Kane and the former Grace Stamm, she grew up in Bayside and graduated from high school there.
Mrs. Walter first came to Montauk in the mid-1950s. She raised her sons in Ditch Plain in the summers, and eventually built a home in the hamlet’s Shepherd’s Neck neighborhood with her second husband, George Walter. She had two sons with her first husband, Roger Cronley, and gained a third when she married Mr. Walter on Sept. 6, 1980. The couple moved to Montauk full time in 1990.
Mr. Walter survives as do their sons, Roger Cronley of East Hampton, Steven Cronley of Montauk, and Sean Walter of New Jersey. She also leaves a sister, Joan Jones of Montauk, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
