Obituaries

If Ben Bradlee was the archetypal American newspaper editor — brash, gravelly voiced, profane, barrel-chested — he also happened to preside over his paper, The Washington Post, during a golden age of journalism, 1968 to 1991, when reporters’ work never mattered more.

Dorothy May Rodriguez, who was known as Darcy and had worked at many deli counters around East Hampton, died at Southampton Hospital last Thursday. She was 48 and had cancer.

Ms. Rodriguez, who grew up in Amagansett, lived in Springs with her children, Colin, 13, and Katalina, 11. “Her sincerity and ability to connect with anyone who walked through the door was contagious, and so many people will remember starting their day with a smile from Darcy,” her family said.

Jack Morelli, a musician and cook who lived in Amagansett and East Hampton for four decades, died on Saturday at Stony Brook University Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 61.

Mr. Morelli had worked as a property caretaker and, most recently, as a private chef. “He loved to cook for people,” his daughter, Janae Anderson of Nashville, said.

Joan Wyckoff adopted East Hampton as her second and then primary residence as an adult, but was an active and devoted member of the community here whose contributions were felt at the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, the Springs Library, Bay Street Theater, East Hampton Presbyterian Church, and Meals on Wheels.

Ms. Wyckoff, who was 84, died in hospice care on Oct. 25 in Melville after a six-week illness with heart disease. She had lived on Argyle Lane in East Hampton for 35 years and summered in Amagansett for 20 years before that.

Word has been received of the death in July of John Thomas Cameron, a summer resident of Sag Harbor since childhood. Mr. Cameron, who also lived in Charleston, S.C., died of a massive heart attack. He was 57.

Steven Donald Cookingham of Montauk, who was 57, died at Southampton Hospital on Oct. 28 after having a heart attack.

 Mr. Cookingham had lived in Montauk since 1998, pursuing a career as a craftsman, most recently with Montauk Craftsman Inc. He was said to take great pride in his work and to pay meticulous attention to detail.

Catherine M. Reid, who for many years did the bookkeeping for Reid Brothers auto repair in Sag Harbor, her sons’ business, died at home in Amagansett on Oct. 8. She was 88 and had been under hospice care, her family said.

She was born in Liverpool, England, on Dec. 27, 1925, to Charles J. Reynolds and the former Mary Margaret McNeish, and immigrated as a child to Australia, where her maternal uncles worked aboard ships.

Visiting hours for Joan M. Wyckoff of East Hampton, who died on Saturday at the age of 84, will be on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Nolan and Taylor-Howe Funeral Home at 5 Laurel Avenue in Northport. The service will begin at 3 p.m. that day at the funeral home. An obituary for her will appear in a future issue.

Frances Theresa Hickey of East Hampton, who was known as Terry, died at home on Sept. 22 at the age of 66. Friends attributed her death to natural causes.

John C. Hardy, an artist and teacher who lived in SoHo and Springs, died of complications from a stroke at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City on Oct. 10 in the company of Joan Semmel, his companion for the past 21 years. He was 91.

Samuel Alan Meddaugh, who was valedictorian of East Hampton High School’s class of 1954 before going on to a career in the fledgling computer industry in the 1960s, died at home in Eagan, Minn., on Oct. 13 of complications from a rare heart disease. He was 78.

Aileen F. Brody, 81, an East Hampton resident since the 1990s, died on Friday. Her family said she had been ill for a short time.

Music was an important element of Mrs. Brody’s life. She earned a bachelor’s degree in the teaching of piano skills from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, and went on to give piano concerts and private lessons. She passed her love of music to her only child, Martha Brody, and together they performed recitals at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.

Donald M. Kennedy, who survived polio, competed in the Paralympics for many years, and went on to a successful career in law, died at home in Hampton Bays last Thursday. The 81-year-old, who spent summers in Montauk since 1954, had been under a doctor’s care for atrial fibrillation.

A memorial gathering in honor of Asa G. Peckham, formerly of East Hampton, who died in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 3, will be held at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.

Mr. Peckham’s obituary will appear in a future issue. He was 63.

Word has reached The Star of the death on Sept. 22 of Frances Theresa (Terry) Hickey of East Hampton. She was 66.

A service will be held on Nov. 1 at 3:30 p.m. in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. A full obituary will appear at a future time.

Anna Dehanich died on Friday at home on Harbor Road in Amagansett, where she had lived since 2002. She was 99.

Her family said she was a caring, loving, religious person, who lived life to the fullest. “Anna was full of knowledge and wisdom,” they said.

Ms. Dehanich was born in Brooklyn on July 25, 1915, and grew up there, attending P.S. 172 and Bay Ridge High School. Her parents, John Dehanich and the former Catherine Uravich, had been married in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1906; they came to America three years later.

Jack William Henry Mattair, a psychoanalyst who formerly practiced in Manhattan and East Hampton, died in his sleep at home in East Hampton on Friday. He was 81. His family said the cause of death was not known.

A graduate of the University of Florida, Mr. Mattair earned a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University and a master’s degree in psychoanalysis from the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in Manhattan. He later became a faculty member there.

Robert D. Mulford, who served as organist and choir director of the East Hampton Methodist Church and the Springs Presbyterian Church for many years until his retirement in 2001, died of congestive heart failure on Sept. 22 at D’Youville Senior Care, the long-term nursing facility of the D’Youville Life and Wellness Community in Lowell, Mass. He was 89 and had been in declining health, his family said.

Madeline Patricia Betts, who spent much of her life in Sag Harbor as both a year-round and summer resident, died at Sem Haven, a residential care center in Milford, Ohio, on Sept. 29. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease six years ago, her family said. She was 90.

Monica M. Brennan, a former owner of the Blue Haven Motel in Montauk, died in Mountain Lakes, N.J., on Saturday, two weeks before her 82nd birthday, after a brief illness.

Mrs. Brennan and her husband, Thomas Brennan, had lived in Rockland County for 20 years, where they raised seven children. Mr. Brennan enjoyed fishing in Montauk, and they moved there in 1978, buying the Blue Haven Motel. “Montauk was the beginning of many special moments and lasting memories,” her family said.

Thomasina Rana Graham, who was born in Amagansett, died on Sept. 27 at home in Naples, Me. Stewart R. Graham Sr., her husband of more than 70 years, was at her bedside. She was 95.

Known to friends and family as Mae or Maizie, Mrs. Graham was born on Sept. 12, 1919, the second child of Peter and Rose Rana of Amagansett. While working at the former Dominy Guest House in East Hampton, she met her husband, who was serving with the Coast Guard at its old Georgica Station in East Hampton.

Frances Starr Todd, a teacher and philanthropist who spent summers in East Hampton, died on Aug. 28 at home in Far Hills, N.J. She was 73 and had cancer.

She was married to John Todd, whose grandparents were among the first families to build summer houses on Dunemere Lane in East Hampton. The couple lived there for a time, her daughter, Mary Starr Todd Ganzenmuller, said. She later lived on Buell Lane in a house that became a gathering place for several generations of the family.

George Thomas Proferes, a longtime owner of the Paradise restaurant in Sag Harbor Village, which was in his family for close to 80 years, died at Huntington Hospital on Friday. He was 75 and had pneumonia, after having had lung problems for 30 years, his wife, Carroll Proferes, said.

Vernal Harold Lafoe, a former resident of East Hampton, died of cancer on Sept. 17 at the Hospice of Citrus County in Lecanto, Fla. He was 88.

One of six children, Mr. Lafoe was born on June 7, 1926, in Brownington, a small town in northern Vermont, to Harold and Pearl Lafoe. In 1944, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Navy and served with the Seabees, the Navy construction battalion, in the South Pacific.

William G. Abel, East Hampton’s pre-eminent surgeon as well as the chief of surgery at Southampton Hospital for many years, died on Aug. 15 at his home on Baiting Hollow Road here. He was 92.

Annette MacNiven, a world-class mountain-biker who competed in Xterra championships in Hawaii, California, Colorado, and Utah, and who taught swimming to I-Tri girls and members of the Hurricanes youth swim team at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, died on Sept. 16 at Southampton Hospital, where she was on life support. She was 56.

Her husband, Tom, said his wife of 30 years had “a strong will, and a huge heart, both physically and emotionally. Her heart was the last thing to stop.”

Anthony Mammano, who had his own business making custom cabinetry and doing glasswork, died at Southampton Hospital after a short illness. He was 63 and had recently had several strokes and pneumonia.

Mr. Mammano, who was known as Tony, was a member of the Living Water Full Gospel Church in Wainscott, where he volunteered to help run the food pantry. He also volunteered his time for fund-raisers for the East Hampton Food Pantry and for the Clamshell Foundation here.

Barbara Osborn Babinski Meyer, a Wainscott resident whose roots go back to John Osborn, one of the first settlers of the hamlet, died at home surrounded by her family on Aug. 31 after a brief illness. 

Mrs. Babinski Meyer is in the 10th generation of Osborns who live in the Town of East Hampton. John Osborn, the son of Thomas Osborne, who followed Lion Gardiner here in 1670, dropped the last letter of his surname, according to Hilary Osborn Malecki, the family historian. Twelve generations later, his descendants still live in Wainscott.

Emmett Clarence Bennett, a lifetime resident of Springs and Wainscott, died of Huntington’s disease at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook on Sept. 16. He was 67 and had been ill for years.

Mr. Bennett graduated from East Hampton High School with the class of 1964 and joined the Air Force two years later, serving as a mechanic for about four years. His roots here went way back. He was born at Southampton Hospital on Oct. 26, 1946, to Clarence Bennett and the former Clara Payne; he was related to the Lester family as well.

Harry Lee Hinson, an interior designer who founded Hinson & Company, a leading wallpaper, textile, and lighting company, died on Sept. 4 at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in Manhattan. He was 76.