Obituaries

Bette Jean Jacobs Gifford of East Hampton, a fashion designer, master gardener, and dedicated volunteer for organizations that helped those in need, including the local Meals on Wheels, died of a stroke on March 25 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. She was 89.

Laura Wojciechowski, who came to the United States from Belarus as a teenager and made Sag Harbor her home for more than 50 years, died of a stroke on July 9 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson. She was 84.

Mary Jane Anderson, who was active in East Hampton Town politics and headed its Women’s Republican Club, died on Saturday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She had just turned 87 and had a short illness following hospitalization.

Norton William Daniels Jr. of Bridgehampton, who served for many years as an East Hampton Town assessor and helped start the movement to preserve open space and farmland after being elected to the Suffolk County Legislature in the mid-1970s, died on July 19 at his son’s house in Sag Harbor. He was 98.

Rian J. White of Springs died of cancer on July 25 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 62 and had been ill for two years.

Steven Douglas Strauss of Toledo, Ohio, who spent summers since he was a child on Shore Road in Amagansett, died on July 20 at Stony Brook University Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 52.

Anthony Lee Bowen, formerly of Montauk and Park Ridge, N.J., died on July 4 at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Smithtown. He was 80 and had been unwell since last autumn.

Edward Paul Miller II, a computer specialist who recently had been ordained as a minister with Universal Life Ministries of Glen County, Ga., died of renal failure on June 30 in Brunswick, Ga., where he lived. He was 43 and had been ill for four years.

A Mass for Nicholas Sennefelder, a former Montauk resident who died on June 27 in Abingdon, Va., will be said on Friday, Aug. 3, at 11 a.m. at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk. An obituary in last week’s paper had the wrong time for the Mass.

Rita Paon, who lived for about 80 years in Montauk, died there on July 16. She was 105.

Barbara S. Cirami of East Hampton, an activist for gay and lesbian causes who had a 30-year career with IBM in Westchester, died of cancer at her winter residence in North Fort Myers, Fla., on July 10. She was 72.

Betty Goldman Schlein, a political activist who helped found and later led the Long Island chapter of the National Organization for Women and was a founding member of Eleanor’s Legacy, an organization named for the first lady that helps recruit and train female Democratic candidates, died of a stroke at her Manhattan home on June 29. A Southampton resident as well, she was 87.

Nicholas Sennefelder, a former Montauk resident, died on June 27 in Abingdon, Va., of cancer. He was 50 and had been ill for 18 months.

Phyllis Clemenz of Montauk died on July 1 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton of complications of dementia, which she had for five years. She was 87.

Thomas A. Theuret, the former owner of Quality Seafood in Queens and, later, a dispatcher for Scan Security of Southampton, died at home in Springs on July 10 with friends and family present. He was 69 and had Parkinson’s disease.

Barbara Kantor, whose love of boating and fishing drew her to Montauk as well as North Palm Beach, Fla., died of advanced Parkinson’s disease and dementia on June 29 after an eight-year illness.

Christian Bermeo was “a simple guy,” his oldest brother, Franklin Bermeo, said. He lived in his brother’s house on Hollyoak Avenue in Springs with his brother’s family and their parents. He worked hard and saved his money to send to his 5-year-old son back in Ecuador, where he planned to build a house.

Visiting hours and a service will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Saturday for Danielle Cynthia Bertagna, who died on June 29 in Las Vegas at the age of 34. The immediate cause of death was not provided.

A graveside service for Gary G. King of Miller Lane West in East Hampton, who died on Friday at Southampton Hospital, will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Cedar Lawn Cemetery here. Mr. King was 69. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

A memorial service has been scheduled for July 26 at 11 a.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton for George Morrison Jewett, who died on Jan. 5 in Las Vegas of complications of cardiovascular disease.

Irving Dassa of East Hampton, who owned and ran the first men’s barbershop in New York City to have women barbers, died of cancer on June 24 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan.

A former part-time Montauk resident and a founder of the Montauk Artists Association, Joseph Richard Bucci of West Islip died on June 26 in Sayville after an illness of about year. A Marine Corps veteran who served in Korea, he was 86.

Ms. Kantor, who was 84, died on Friday of advanced-stage Parkinson’s disease and dementia. In addition to Montauk, she had lived in North Palm Beach, Fla., Manhattan, and West Nyack, N.Y. Burial, which will be private, will be at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

A funeral Mass for Cecilia Roxbury Rarrick of Montauk and East Hampton, who died on Sunday, will be said on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk.

William E. Segelken Jr. died on June 8 at home on Oakview Highway in East Hampton of cirrhosis. He was 49.

A celebration of the life of Jay Scott, a former Montauk resident who died on May 15 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will be held on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Edward Ecker Park at the west end of Navy Road in Montauk.

John F. Rutkowski, the former owner of John’s Pancake House and the Montauk Movie and a Navy veteran who served in World War II and the Korean War, died of cancer on June 21 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 92 and had been ill for two years.

Peter Whelan of Noyac, a builder, sailor, musician, and photographer, died at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown on June 16. Mr. Whelan, who was 66, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer last winter.

Richard Perry Mark, an engineer who served in the Army infantry during the Korean War, died of lung cancer at the age of 88 last Thursday at Northport (L.I.) Veterans Hospital. He had been sick for six months.

His family remembered him this week as “a kind and caring soul,” who had a protective instinct and stood up to bullies. “He always watched out for his family,” they said.