"She could tell you what you were wearing when you first met her. She made the past come to life," Mary Giaquinto said of her mother, Mary Lavelle, who died on Sunday in Connecticut. Ms. Lavelle, formerly of Springs and East Hampton, would have turned 103 at the end of the month. She had 15 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
At age 14 she left school in Ireland, where she was born in 1921 to Thomas and Mary Finnerty. She trained as a domestic worker and soon after went to live in London before World War II broke out.
"Just this week, she told me about Birr, the tiny town she grew up in," Ms. Giaquinto said, "and told me who lived in each house."
During the war, Ms. Lavelle moved between Dublin and London, following work. "The reason we emigrated was because after the war, England was on its bum, and my father, John Lavelle, was anxious to come to the States."
Mr. Lavelle worked for Cunard, the transatlantic shipping company. Once the family got to the U.S., he began working as a waiter in Manhattan.
"In 1958, we only had woolen clothes; that first summer it was very hot," Ms. Giaquinto recalled. "Back then there was no air-conditioning in New York. The restaurant my father worked at closed for the summer, but its clientele came to the Hamptons. He came out to work at the Spring Close House. In 1958, East Hampton was an idyll of peace and quiet. Even the hedges smelled. The place was aromatic. Simple and lovely. My parents loved it here. It was a total antidote to their experiences during the war."
In 1972, the Lavelles bought a house on Pembroke Drive in Springs, and then one on Cooper's Lane in East Hampton Village in 1982 before retiring. Ms. Lavelle was active in the Irish American Club and Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church here. "It took my mother back to the Ireland of her youth. This place was like a rebirth."
In addition to Ms. Giaquinto, who lives in East Hampton, Ms. Lavelle is survived by three other daughters, Katherine Hudson of Chappaqua, N.Y., Sarah Conley Matyi of Winter Park, Fla., and Meg Bradt of Stamford, Conn. A son, Hugh, who was an infant, and a daughter, Marni Eaton, died before her.
A service will be held in her honor at a future date in Greenwich, Conn., arranged by Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home. Another will be held at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Winter Park. Ms. Lavelle will be buried in Palm Cemetery in Winter Park.
