Salvadore Iacono, Poultry Farmer on Long Lane
The Iacono farm on Long Lane in East Hampton sits on flat ground, but the pilgrimage to buy a fresh, free-range chicken, goose, or duck at the white storefront with the screen door and to visit with the jovial farmer behind the counter was a trip to the mountaintop of poultry. At least that’s how many East Hampton residents thought of Sal Iacono’s place.
To many, chicken was not worth eating unless it came from the Iacono farm and Christmas was not the same holiday without an Iacono goose on the table. The farmer’s genial temperament seemed to keep the character of the farm in the small-town era of its founding, a democratic kind of place where Bonac locals received the same down-home treatment as celebrities, and where there were no favorites amid the hospitality, and, of course, the necessary carnage.
“Some people are squeamish when they see it,” he once said of the slaughtering, “but, in the long run, it’s good to see it. Then they know the birds are fresh-killed.”
Salvadore Iacono died on April 30 at Southampton Hospital of complications from hip surgery. At 79, he had farmed poultry for over 50 years with his wife, the former Eileen Ward, at his side, as well as his son, Anthony.
Corn was not just what went into Mr. Iacono’s chicken feed. His jokes were, well, corny: “Got any eggs?” a customer would ask. “The chickens are workin’ on ’em,” he might answer. “How many do you want?”
Mr. Iacono’s voice might not always have hit the same notes as the doo-wop songs coming from the store speakers. On the other hand, the jokes were always there, so was the music and the cats, and, for a time, Shadow, his pet goose, who was named for never leaving his side.
Sal Iacono was born in a house across Long Lane from East Hampton High School on May 5, 1929, a son of Emmanuel Iacono and the former Calogera Romano. His father sold vegetables and fruit from a roadside stand and door to door. Much of the acreage where the poultry farm now sits used to be devoted to a truck garden plowed by a horse. The elder Iacono bought the land in 1930 from S. Gardiner Osborn. It was Sal Iacono’s idea to raise poultry to have more of a year-round income for the family.
“I had nobody teach me this business,” he said in an interview in 1982. The man known for his artistry with a knife admitted that in the beginning, “I used to hack a chicken bad.”
It was not just the chickens that sent the likes of Florence Fabricant, the food editor for The New York Times, reaching for superlatives. Iacono’s eggs, the side of the business watched over by Eileen Iacono since 1965, have also been in great demand.
“Chickens are our thing,” Mr. Iacono said. “We try to kill one day and sell the next,” a protocol the farm continues to follow. “A big chicken should be cooked the next day, though a small bird killed early in the morning can be cooked that night. Thoroughly chilling them makes them tender. If you kill and cook them before they’re chilled, they’re stringy.”
Mr. Iacono graduated from East Hampton High School with the class of 1948 and went into the poultry business almost immediately. A farmer’s life did not leave him a lot of spare time. He enjoyed bowling and played for a number of leagues. He also sponsored bowling teams at the East Hampton alleys.
“His ability to make you smile was like chicken soup for the soul for everyone,” his family said.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Iacono is survived by his daughters, Catherine Tomasso of Rhode Island and Suzanne Cassel of Sagaponack, and sisters, Josephine Iacono of East Hampton and Mary Iacono of Virginia. He leaves eight grandchildren. Mr. Iacono was predeceased by three siblings, Jennie Lubrozzi, Angeline Iacono, and John Iacono.
A memorial service was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Monday; burial followed at Most Holy Trinity cemetery. Memorial contributions were suggested for the East Hampton Fire Department or the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937. R.D.
Jordan C. Haerter
No one on either side of Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter’s family had voluntarily served in the military. His paternal grandfather was drafted into the German Army and his maternal grandfather served in the United States Army, also by way of the draft, his mother, JoAnn Lyles, said.
Ms. Lyles and her former husband, Christian Haerter, hadn’t heard of their only son’s decision to serve until they were sitting in his counselor’s office at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor during his senior year. Ms. Lyles said she was immediately flooded with conflicting emotions. “I was as proud as proud could be,” she said. She was also scared.
Corporal Haerter, 19, was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq while on post at a checkpoint in Ramadi on April 22. Lance Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a 21-year-old marine from Burkesville, Va., was killed with him. Official reports hailed the two as heroes for saving the lives of 33 fellow marines, 21 Iraqi policemen, and many more Iraqi civilians.
Corporal Haerter was a rifleman with the First Battalion, Ninth Marines, also known as the Walking Dead. He had earned the qualification as a platoon high shooter in his Alpha Company during boot camp at Parris Island in Beaufort, S.C.
Posthumously, he was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
He was also presented with a Southampton Town Police Department badge and a Sag Harbor Village Police Department gold badge. Before he was deployed a month ago, he had shown interest in becoming a village police officer.
His wide circle of friends “remember him for his infectious smile, quick-witted humor with dry delivery, and his kind and gentle demeanor,” his family said.
His friends would join him on Dirt D, the dirt part of Division Street heading out of the village, and his 1991 Toyota 4Runner was often covered in mud. When he enlisted, he bought a new Dodge Ram pickup truck. Josh Distefano and Stephen LaFountain drove his truck in the funeral procession on April 28, with dozens of flower arrangements hanging out of the truck bed.
During his senior year, when he was allowed to leave Pierson for lunch, he would go to his grandmother’s house just behind the school, as his father had done before him. Lilly Haerter would make lunch for him, his favorite dish being spaetzle, which she would prepare from scratch.
He shared “a special bond” with his paternal grandparents, perhaps because he was their first grandchild, his mother said. “That made him pretty special.” He referred to Mrs. Haerter as Oma, German for grandma, and called Werner Haerter, his grandfather who died in 1994, Opa. The German immigrants came to the United States from Canada in 1953 so that Mr. Haerter could work as a tool and die maker at the Bulova Watch Company.
In “Oma’s yard,” Ms. Lyles said, “Jordan helped picked blueberries, and he wouldn’t even make it inside. He loves, loves blueberries.” He could eat a pint in one sitting, she said.
Corporal Haerter didn’t turn 18 until the July following his 2006 high school graduation. His parents signed for him for the Marines delayed-entry program when he was 17.
Throughout his senior year, he worked out after school so he would be in the best shape possible when he started boot camp. He ran dirt roads in his workboots on the advice of a former marine who lives in Sag Harbor, and did countless chin-ups using a bar in the basement of his mother’s house on Harbor Watch Court.
He would work out, that is, just as long as it didn’t interfere with his morning routine, his mother said. With Mr. Distefano, his best friend, he would stop by the Bagel Buoy for breakfast, which, his mother said, usually included chocolate milk.
Still, everyone noticed the change in his physique as he shed his baby fat for lean muscle. Ms. Lyles keeps two photos of him by her bed: his graduation picture, taken in August 2005, and his military picture, taken after boot camp.
Corporal Haerter was born at Southampton Hospital on July 30, 1988. His parents took him home to their rented apartment behind the old Pantry Deli in Noyac, as their house on Robeson Boulevard was still being built. His parents liked to say that “Jordan was under construction while the house was under construction.”
When his parents separated and later divorced, he moved with his mother into a few rentals while her Harbor Watch Court house was being built. It was then that they acquired an old boat.
Corporal Haerter was at home on the water, steering the outboard on his own from a young age. “He loved going fast on the open water. And he’d go so fast,” Ms. Lyles said. They would motor into Sag Harbor Cove, close by the large yachts, and stare up at them.
He had also piloted a plane before he could legally drive to the lessons at East Hampton Airport. His mother said she would have guessed that he would have joined the Air Force. But, he told her, “I’d rather keep flight as a novelty.”
He had played Little League, but by the fourth grade he focused on his computer skills. He played video and computer games, and later when he joined the Marines, he would tell his friends that what they acted out on a computer, “I do it now.”
A year ago, he began dating Nicole Jonat of Sag Harbor. They attended a formal dance together at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Dressed in his service best, he complained to her that he couldn’t dance comfortably.
In addition to his parents, Corporal Haerter is survived by three grandparents, Lilly Haerter of Sag Harbor and John and Eleanor Lyles of Fort Mill, S.C., and by numerous aunts and uncles.
A funeral service was held at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor on April 28. He was buried with military honors in Oakland Cemetery in the village.
T.K.V.
Jane Olejnik Larson
Jane Olejnik Larson died at her home on Palmer Terrace in Sag Harbor on Monday surrounded by her family. The 76-year-old had lived in Sag Harbor all her life.
Ms. Larson was very proud to have been interviewed for the recently published anthology “Voices of Sag Harbor, a Village Remembered,” edited by Nina Tobier. She grew up in an apartment over the stores on Main Street, and had fond childhood memories of roller-skating at the old Sag Harbor train station, where the post office now stands.
She said in the book, “Main Street was our playground, and the old cars were parked diagonally down the center. There were electric lights lining the Main Street, but at one time they were lit by gas.”
She was born at Southampton Hospital on New Year’s Eve in 1931, to Robert Olejnik and the former Lena Laspesa. On her father’s side, she was descended from one of the first families to settle in Sag Harbor.
She graduated salutatorian of her class from Pierson High School in 1949, and received a phlebotomy degree from a school in New York City. After working in the field for a short time, she went to work for the telephone company in the Sag Harbor office and remained a dedicated operator, assisting residents and sometimes just chatting and comforting the village’s lonely souls, according to family.
Ms. Larson became a full-time homemaker in 1963 when the village’s telephone system went to direct dial and the office closed. Her two oldest daughters fondly remember those days and how much she enjoyed her job. For years they tried to encourage her to write a novel based on her experiences called “Number Please.”
She and her husband, Edmund A. Larson, were married on Dec. 13, 1953. They spent their lives together on Palmer Terrace, except for a short time when Ms. Larson joined her husband in Germany, while he was stationed there during his service with the U.S. Army.
Besides her husband, Ms. Larson is survived by a son, Chris Larson of Sag Harbor, and by three daughters, Lori Novak of Sag Harbor, Karen Magnino of Montclair, Va., and Leslie Sims of Coco, Fla. Two sisters also survive, Carol Olejnik of Sag Harbor, and Betty McGuire of Melbourne, Fla. She was predeceased by 1 grandchild, and is survived by 11 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Visiting hours at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor will be tomorrow between 2 and 4 p.m. and 7 and 9 p.m. Memorial prayers will be said at the funeral home at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and Ms. Larson will be buried at Oakland Cemetery. Her family suggested donations to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978, or to the Sag Harbor Ambulance Corp., P.O. Box 2725, Sag Harbor 11963.
Charlotte Meyer of Amagansett died on Monday. Visiting hours will be today from 7 to 9 p.m. and tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.