Obituaries

    Toni Botta, who lived in Montauk for more than 30 years, died of cancer on Feb. 20 in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 61 and had been ill for eight months.

    Ms. Botta, known as Rusty, worked at the Montauk Marine Basin and the Montauk Medical Center, before retiring and moving to Lehigh Acres, Fla., with her husband, Anthony Botta, about 15 years ago. 

    Craig C. Morton, a Montauker who had lived in Rincon, Puerto Rico, for the past 15 years, died on Friday in Rincon after a brief illness. He was 49.

    Mr. Morton was an electrician and helped a lot of people in Rincon, according to his brother, Chuck Morton of Montauk.

    Family and close friends of Stefon M. Johnson, 23, of Portsmouth, Va., will gather on Monday for a graveside service in Chesapeake, Va. Mr. Johnson, who lived in Bridgehampton as a child, died on Friday at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. He had sickle-cell anemia.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Ruth Hedges Guyer, an early education teacher who, her family said, felt blessed to work with children, died at home in Bridgehampton of cancer on Feb. 26. She was 71.

    Samuel Jacob Spielberg, who loved his hometown of East Hampton and was raising his own daughter here, died on Feb. 22 following a single car accident in Amagansett. He was 31.

    Hundreds filled Ashawagh Hall in Springs and gathered on the lawn outside during a celebration of his life on Feb. 28.

    Mr. Spielberg was dedicated to his family and to his friends, both lifelong and new, and they spoke last week of his generous and caring nature.

    John Peter Macca, a former sales manager for the Texaco oil company who was a summer resident of Amagansett for several decades, died on Feb. 27 at Treasure Coast Hospice in Florida following a stroke. He was 83.

    Mr. Macca was born on July 8, 1929, in New York City to Peter Samuel Macca and the former Rosana Muraca. As a young man, he served in the Army during the Korean War. He later earned a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University in Hempstead.

    Richard T. Johnson, who was among the founders of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, died at San Simeon by the Sound in Greenport on Feb. 21. He was 87. The cause of death was cancer, his niece, Frances Walton, said.

    Mr. Johnson was a person of many interests. He worked for Chrysler in Latin America and South America, and on the side wrote plays. His co-written script for the comedy “All the Girls Came Out to Play” had a three-day run on Broadway before closing in 1972 but continues to be performed by theater companies around the world.

    Norman Taylor Harrington II, a former English professor at Brooklyn College, died of cancer last Thursday at home in Manhattan. He was 86 and had been ill for 18 months.

    A part-time resident of Amagansett, he loved Fresh Pond, Louse Point, reading in the Amagansett Library, visiting the proprietor of Amagansett Hardware, having clams at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, and conferring with his favorite plumber, Phil Gamble, his family said.

    James Montaudevert Waterbury, formerly of East Hampton, died at his house in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 8 of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85 and had been ill a long time.

    Mr. Waterbury, who was known to friends and family as Monty, was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 1927, to Cleveland Livingston Waterbury and the former Frances Riddle. He grew up on the East Coast.

    After graduating from St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, he served in the United States Marine Corps. He later graduated from Yale University, in 1950.

    Samuel J. Spielberg, a resident of Springs, died on Friday following an auto accident. He was 31. A memorial service was held yesterday afternoon at Ashawagh Hall in Springs.

    The son of Jason and Sherry Spielberg of Springs, Mr. Spielberg is survived by his parents, his wife, Kariann Spielberg of Springs, and his sister, Summer Wolff of Italy, along with a 6-year-old daughter, Bianca Mar Spielberg.

    A Mass of Christian burial was said on Feb. 18 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor for Helen Downes Labrozzi of Sag Harbor, who died on Feb. 15 at the age of 93 at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson. Burial followed at St. Andrew’s Cemetery, also in Sag Harbor.

    Ms. Labrozzi had suffered a stroke while a resident at Sunrise Senior Living in East Setauket.

    As if by magic — though in reality it took an indomitable spirit, tireless cajoling, and a deep belief in music’s universal value — Ruth Widder routinely transformed the folding chairs and wooden bleachers of the Montauk School gymnasium into Lincoln Center for over two decades and counting.

    Ms. Widder died at her Manhattan residence on Feb. 20. She was 84. The cause of death is not known; except for a cold the week before, she had not been ill. A memorial service was held yesterday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.

    Edward M. Evans, who served on a Congressional committee as the chief investigator in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, died on Friday at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was 81 and had retired to his Harbor Avenue, Sag Harbor, house some years ago. His death followed a period of illness, his family said.

    Enrique Leon, a 35-year resident of East Hampton who was involved in the growth of soccer’s popularity on the South Fork, died at home in Heredia, Costa Rica, on Dec. 17. He was 79 and had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma a few months before his death.

    The oldest of 13 children, Mr. Leon was born on May 31, 1933, in Costa Rica to Juan Felix Leon and the former Rosario Perez. As a young man, he helped support his siblings by selling newspapers, picking coffee beans, and working as a laborer in a lumberyard, a carpenter, and a deckhand on a shrimp boat.

    Caroline Valenta, a trail-blazing newspaper photographer and Pulitzer-prize nominee, who had lived on Suffolk Street in Sag Harbor for more than a decade, died on Feb. 20 at the Westhampton Care Center. She was 88 and had pancreatic cancer for three years.

    Vito Sisti, a Springs auto mechanic-turned art curator, died unexpectedly at home on Monday of causes that are yet to be determined. He was 51.

    The unofficial “mayor” of Springs, Mr. Sisti was an auto mechanic who became known for Vito Sisti Presents art shows at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, which he organized at regular intervals throughout the year for the last two decades. Not only a showcase for the work of local artists, the exhibitions became an occasion for opening, and sometimes closing, parties that were highly anticipated and brought community members together.

    Sally Penalosa-Wilson of Montauk, a bookkeeper by trade who emigrated from the Philippines in 1986, died on Feb. 12 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City of breast cancer. She was 76.

    Mrs. Penalosa-Wilson’s daughter Cecy Wilson of Yonkers said her mother was known for her hula dancing. “She loved life. She loved to entertain. She had many friends, and they all knew her for her hula.”

ay, Montauk, and Jupiter, Fla., died on Feb. 10 after a year’s illness. He was 92.     Mr. Mandel was a founder and partner of Golden and Mandel, a New York City law firm. He had been a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.

    Marsha (Nicky) Edlich of Woodcrest Drive in Springs and Lafayette Street in Manhattan died at home in Manhattan on Jan. 31 at the age of 70. Her family said the cause of death was ovarian cancer, which she had survived for 10 years.

    Ms. Edlich taught French at the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan for some 35 years. She had previously been chief of operations for Club Med USA. She also was a member of the board of the New York Women’s Foundation, and had served as chair of its annual benefit breakfast.

    Antoinette J. Doherty, who was 85, died at home in Amagansett on Feb. 12 after a long and crippling battle with fast-onset dementia. Ms. Doherty, who was called Ann, had a house in the hamlet since the 1970s and was a former trustee of the Amagansett Library.

    Louise Jensen, who was a New York Telephone Company  operator in East Hampton for about 15 years, died on Feb. 10 at F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, N.Y., due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 85.

    Marilyn Morris Johnson, a dedicated member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton and a former resident of Woodbine Drive in Springs, died on Feb. 11 at the Westhampton Care Center, after an illness. She was 78.

    Robert E. Fordham, a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor and a man who was described as kind and gentle, died of complications related to quadruple bypass surgery while at his vacation home in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Feb. 6. He was 69 years old.

    Described by his family as an 11th generation Fordham in Sag Harbor, Mr. Fordham was born to Hiram (Hydie) and Dorothy Fordham on July 13, 1943. He left for the Vietnam War shortly after graduating from Pierson High School. Following two years of service in the Army, he returned home to marry the former Eileen Archibald in 1968.

    Myrna Omang, a retired advertising executive, died on Feb. 1 at her Breeze Hill Road residence in East Hampton, where she had lived with her partner of 32 years, Beverly Matthews, whom she married in August 2010. She was 78 and had acute myeloid leukemia, Ms. Matthews said.

    Diane Wolkstein, a summer visitor to Springs and world-renowned storyteller, died in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, last Thursday following emergency heart surgery. She was 70.

    Ms. Wolkstein is credited with reviving an interest in storytelling, particularly the folklore of countries familiar and more exotic, as New York City’s official storyteller, a position she held from 1967 to 1971. In the year-round post, she would visit parks and schools and share stories from standard fairy tales as well as those lesser known and gathered from all over the world.

    Betty Barton Evans, a summer resident of Pondview Lane, East Hampton, who worked during World War II for the United States Coordinator of Information, the precursor to the Office of Strategic Services, and who later bred a Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes-winning horse, died at home in Greenwich, Conn., on Feb. 5. She was 89. The cause was gastric cancer, her family said.

    Ms. Evans and her second husband, Thomas Mellon Evans, owned Buckland Farms, a Virginia horse farm where they bred thoroughbred horses, including Pleasant Colony, the 1981 Derby and Preakness winner.

    Kelly Anne Doroski loved being a stay-at-home mom and spending her time with the two men in her life, her fiancé, Max Corrigan, and their 22-month-old son, Joshua Aiden.

    Born on May 15, 1989, in Southampton to William J. Doroski and the former Patricia L. Smith, she grew up in Sag Harbor, and graduated from Pierson High School.

    The Rev. Denis C. Brunelle will officiate at a funeral for Marilyn Johnson of  Springs on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. Ms. Johnson died on Monday at the Westhampton Care Center. Her ashes will be buried following the service in the church’s memorial garden.

    Those organizing the funeral have said that Ms. Johnson did not care for flowers and would not have wanted them. They suggested donations instead to St. Luke’s. An obituary for her will appear in a future issue.

    Suzanne May Marks of Treescape Drive in East Hampton and Highland Beach, Fla., died on Jan. 31 in Boca Raton, Fla. At the age of 80. She had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer a little over a year ago.

    Ms. Marks, who for three decades spent several months of each year in East Hampton, was born in New York City on May 16, 1932, to Edward and Piri Schweiger. She grew up in the city and attended Hunter College there.

    Pierre Lucien Schoenheimer, a financier and decades-long summer resident of East Hampton, died at his apartment in Manhattan on Jan. 25. The family did not provide a cause of death. He was 79.

    Mr. Schoenheimer’s parents purchased a house in Montauk in the 1950s. He and his family remained connected to the area ever since.

    Mr. Schoenheimer was born in Paris in July 1933 to Fritz R. Schoenheimer and the former Ellen Berliner. The family fled Europe in 1941, ultimately settling in New York.