Norman Dello Joio, Renowned Composer

    Norman Dello Joio, one of the 20th century’s most celebrated composers, died last Thursday at home in East Hampton at the age of 95. He had been in failing health in the last few years, and his daughter, Victoria Dello Joio, was with him at the time of his death.

    Unlike other noted composers of his day, who subscribed to atonal music, Mr. Dello Joio kept to what theorists describe as the tonal centers of 20th-century music. He worked in almost every genre — symphonic, chamber, operatic, choral, concert band, and piano among them. His music was inspired by the sounds and rhythm of American life, and he set the poetry of Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg to music. 

    In 1957, he won a Pulitzer Prize for “Meditations of Ecclesiastes” for string orchestra. He also composed for television, winning an Emmy for a score accompanying a special on the Louvre, and dance, writing “Diversion of Angels” and “Seraphic Dialogue” for Martha Graham. He won a New York Music Critics Award and was the recipient of several honorary degrees.

    Closer to home, Mr. Dello Joio was honored by the Music Festival of the Hamptons and by the Choral Society of the Hamptons, which performed his 1946 “A Jubilant Song” and “Come to Me, My Love,” a love song written for the woman who was to become his second wife, the actress Barbara Bolton, who survives.

    Members of the Choral Society remembered his graciousness in listening to rehearsals. He also sponsored a Choral Society scholarship for high school students, and his continuing interest in education led him to a Ford Foundation grant to start a program that placed young composers in public schools.

    Mr. Dello Joio was born on Jan. 24, 1913, to Casmiro Dello Joio and the former Antoinette Garramoni. His father was in the third generation of an Italian family of church organists, and he also became a vocal coach after immigrating to this country. He provided his son’s early musical training, and Mr. Dello Joio grew up hearing stars of the Metropolitan Opera at home. His godfather was Pietro Von, an organist of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

    By the age of 12, Mr. Dello Joio was substituting for his father at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Manhattan. By 14, he was the organist and choir director of St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church on City Island in the Bronx.

    He studied for seven years at the Juilliard School before becoming bored with church music and concentrating instead on theory and composition. Paul Hindemith, whom he met at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood) in Massachusetts, became his teacher and mentor, and Mr. Dello Joio followed him to Yale University.

    In a 1995 interview in The East Hampton Star, Mr. Dello Joio said Mr. Hindemith “was a tough man on technical work who couldn’t stand the fakery of so-called modern music. It was a time of bare-breasted cellists and people banging on trash cans. Musicians couldn’t explain what they were doing or why. I was almost falling into the trap of getting by on my natural talent, but he made me prove I was a real composer.”

    After striking out on his own and beginning to have his work published, Mr. Dello Joio also became a teacher. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Mannes School of Music, and Boston University, where he was appointed dean of the School of Fine and Applied Arts. He also was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Although he had left the church, Mr. Dello Joio found the story of Joan of Arc compelling. Among his works are an opera written for television called “The Trial of Rouen.”  It was renamed “The Triumph of St. Joan” when it was performed by the New York City Opera and reworked as a symphony.

    Mr. Dello Joio first came to East Hampton more than 40 years ago. He lived for many years on Cottage Avenue and later, with his wife, on Huckleberry Lane. They also spent winters in Vero Beach, Fla.

    It may have surprised new friends to learn that his youth had not been entirely devoted to music. He had been good enough at baseball to consider making it a professional career. In deciding against it, he gave up an opportunity to try out for the Giants. As an adult, Mr. Dello Joio’s sport was tennis. He was a member of the East Hampton Tennis Club and, later, of the Devon Yacht Club.

    Married first to the former Grayce Baumgold, Mr. Dello Joio is survived by their three children. They are Justin Dello Joio of New York, a composer, Norman Dello Joio of Wellington, Fla., an Olympic equestrian who has been a star at the Hampton Classic Horse Show, and Victoria Dello Joio, a master of martial arts who lives in Oakland, Calif. Two stepchildren, Katie Bar-Tur and Ned Costello, also survive, as do three grandchildren.

    Mr. Dello Joio was buried, with only members of his family present, at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton on  Sunday. A memorial will be held at a future date.     H.S.R.

Elsie T. Elkow

    Elsie T. Elkow, who was the director of the Ditch Plain trailer park before it became the Montauk Shores Condominiums, died at home in Sarasota, Fla., on July 22. The 90-year-old, who had been under hospice care for a number of days, died in her sleep.

    Ms. Elkow was an artist who had attended the Pratt Institute in New York and enjoyed the natural beauty of Montauk. She moved there from Brooklyn, after spending several summers at Hither Hills State Park, and became the director at the trailer park in 1952. There she opened a camp grocery store in a retired chicken coop for residents who didn’t drive and found it difficult to get into town.     

    She met her second husband, J. Duke Elkow, at the park, and the couple were married for 45 years before he died in April of 2003. In the late 1960s, Dave Webb built the couple’s dream house on Old West Lake Drive, where they had purchased property. Ms. Elkow enjoyed clamming and fishing in Lake Montauk as well as navigating the couple’s 36-foot boat, the Blythe Spirit.

    Ms. Elkow’s daughter, Arlene Mc­Gillick of Douglaston, Queens, said that “she painted out of pure enjoyment, and made all her clothing . . . and she decorated the entire house.”

    “Their home was a place for many fun-filled gatherings with gourmet cooked meals for both family and friends,” Ms. McGillick said.

    Today the hand-painted sign that Ms. Elkow had made for her grocery store is on display at the Dock restaurant in Montauk. “Some kids were throwing it on a fire down at the beach, and this guy snatched it up and brought it here,” said George Watson, the owner of the Dock. “What I really like about it is it says, ‘Store hours: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.’ ”

    In 1954, as Hurricane Carol was approaching, Ms. Elkow led an evacuation effort at the campground at Ditch Plain. “She was a strong and independent woman who ran a tight ship at the camp,” Ms. McGillick said. “You might not have always agreed with Elsie, but she held fast and somehow always left a lasting impression.”

    Born in Brooklyn on Aug. 22, 1917, to Peter and Myra Stiansen, she grew up in Bay Ridge and graduated from high school there. Before moving east, she worked as an electrolysis technician at beauty salons in Bay Ridge, and from her home.

    In the late 1970s, Ms. Elkow and her husband were some of the original members of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. They moved to Sarasota in 1992, when the winters became too cold for them, but according to Ms. Mc­Gillick, “their love for Montauk was always close to their hearts.”

    Besides her daughter, Ms. Elkow is survived by a son, Roger Hoffman of Sarasota, three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Her first husband, George Hoffman, also survives.

    She was cremated, and her ashes, along with those of her husband, will be buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk. The family is planning a memorial service for them both in September.

Marion O. Porter, 96

    Marion O. Porter, who along with her husband, the late painter David Porter, was well known in the tightly knit artists’ community of the 1950s, had a quick wit, old-school charm, and modern ideas that sustained her until her death at home in Sagaponack on July 22. She was 96.

    The group of artists, including Jackson Pollock, Wilfrid Zogbaum, James Brooks, and Willem de Kooning, spent a lot of time together on the East End. Then known as the artists’ beach, Georgica became their hangout. The group would also gather at the Elm Tree Inn in Amagansett on Friday and Saturday nights.

    The Porters, who were married for 57 years when Mr. Porter died in 2005, first visited East Hampton in May 1951. Mrs. Porter suggested to her husband that they go somewhere special for his 39th birthday, and they spent the weekend at the 1770 House in the village.

    While enjoying his birthday weekend, Mr. Porter decided to look up Jackson Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, in the phone book. In a 2002 interview for a profile on the couple in The Star, Mrs. Porter remembered Pollock driving them down Springs-Fireplace Road on a rainy afternoon at 95 miles per hour. “I thought we were never going to make it!” she said.

    Following lunch, the artists took Mr. and Mrs. Porter to the sculptor Wilfrid Zogbaum’s house on Springs-Fireplace Road, and they rented it immediately.

    The following year, they bought two acres of land on Georgica Pond, and found a potato picker’s shack in Bridgehampton and a 300-year-old barn that they moved to the property. Joan Carlson, a friend, described it as an “extraordinary collection of barns and antiquities they assembled on their East Hampton estate.”

    Until 1972, they split their time between their Manhattan apartment on the East River and East Hampton. After they received a generous offer for their house, they sold it, and bought one on Town Line Road in Sagaponack. Into her 90s, Mrs. Porter swam in their pool every day during the summer.

    Later, they spent a few months each winter in Sarasota, Fla., toting with them the Yorkshire terriers they had throughout their marriage.

    Marion Oettinger was born on June 9, 1912, in Scranton, Pa. During World War II she established a day care center there for the children of women who worked in factories.

    She left for New York City when she was 19, when she won a partial scholarship to the Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers. It was one of the elite fashion design schools in the country at the time. A career as “a clever, witty fashion copywriter for New York papers and magazines” followed, Ms. Carlson said.

    After a chance meeting and a three-week courtship, Mr. and Mrs. Porter married on Dec. 3, 1948. They were both 36. They lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan, and met one night when they joined mutual friends for brandy and conversation. Mrs. Porter liked to say she was not only smitten with her husband, but also had an eye for his spectacular 16th-century four-poster Spanish bishop’s bed.

    She encouraged her husband to shift from magazine publishing to becoming a full-time artist. Ten years into their marriage, he had his first one-man show, to enthusiastic reviews. His career was launched, and 32 more solo exhibits would eventually follow.

    Mrs. Porter liked to say she was an artist, too, and that she sold half of everything she had shown — that would be one of two paintings shown on 57th Street well over 60 years ago. For a time she worked on a book that she had titled “Name Droppings,” about famous people she had met. The recollection was to include Harpo Marx, Walter Huston, and Alfred Barr.

    She had a wealth of stories to tell, and she enjoyed telling them. As a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Porter complemented each other. The conservation flowed between them with ease, and when one could not come up with a specific detail, the other did.

    An accident he had while barbecuing a steak in the fireplace of their house left more than 70 percent of Mr. Porter’s body burned, and Mrs. Porter spent the next six years as his caretaker until he made a full recovery.

    Mrs. Porter was an honorary trustee of the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, where she was an active member from 1980 to 1994. After a suggestion from the late Elaine Benson, Mrs. Porter once said, she established the popular Fridays at Five lecture series, which continues to feature well-known writers.

    In 2005, the library awarded her a plaque commemorating the 20th year of the program. For seven years following its founding, she invited and introduced the authors.

    The Porters were longtime volunteers with East End Hospice, and eight years ago Mrs. Porter suggested the group hold an arts auction, which the hospice has done every year since.

    The couple had no children. Mrs. Porter is survived by a nephew, John Oettinger. He will hold a memorial service at her house on Town Line Road in Sagaponack on Aug. 10 at noon.

          T.K.V.

Thelma Gelfond

    Thelma Gelfond, a retired teacher and principal who spent summers at her house on Waterhole Road in Springs for 30 years, died of a heart attack at Stony Brook University Medical Center on Saturday. She was 79, and had been ill for some time.

    Ms. Gelfond enjoyed walking the beaches, mastering her gardening skills, and watching the sunset over cocktails. She loved shopping for antiques, delighting in finding a great piece of furniture.

    Born in Newark on Jan. 2, 1929, the daughter of Murray Gelfond and the former Dorothy Yutan, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Newark Teachers College. For 30 years, she worked in New Jersey for the East Orange Board of Education, both as a teacher and as a principal, before retiring in 1994.

    Ms. Gelfond lived in Hillside, N.J., since the 1960s, while maintaining her summer residence in East Hampton. She had “splendid summers” here, according to friends with whom she spent time and who had become her adoptive family. She is survived by Robin Weaver, her friend of 22 years, with whom she shared the Waterhole Road house.

    A graveside service was held yesterday at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Iselin, N.J. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Springs Ambulance Company, 179 Fort Pond Boulevard, East Hampton 11937, or to charities affiliated with Southampton Hospital or the Stony Brook University Medical Center Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Joan P. Wing, 77

    Joan P. Wing, a stage actress and costume designer who lived in Sag Harbor for 28 years, died at Southampton Hospital on July 11 of a stroke. She was 77.

    She was born in Newark on Jan. 7, 1931, the daughter of Francis McFadden and the former Marion Rolfe. She attended Columbia University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Tamara Daykarhanova School of Theatre. While in New York City, she sang with the Robert Shaw Chorale and performed Off Broadway under Joseph Anthony.

    Ms. Wing was a costumer. She worked under the direction of the Pushcart Players in Montclair, N.J., as well as with Sigrid Insull and Olympia Dukakis at the Whole Theatre Company in its production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

    She moved to Sag Harbor in 1979, where she continued her work with the Ellis Rabb production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Guild Hall in East Hampton. She also worked under the direction of the designer Christophe de Menil in the Robert Wilson operas “Civil Wars” and “Golden Windows.”

    Ms. Wing then accepted a position as a costume conservator and restorer at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, under the direction of Stella Blum and Diana Vreeland, for the exhibit called “The Eighteenth Century Woman.”

    She lectured and taught costume construction at the State University at Stony Brook and worked part time at Canio’s Books, Metaphysical Books and Tools, and the Romany Kramoris Gallery, all in Sag Harbor.

    Ms. Wing is survived by her daughter, Dorian Baker of Charleston, W.Va., and six grandchildren. A private memorial service was held on July 15. Her ashes will be scattered in Ireland next month during a sunset ceremony.

Olivia Baccash, 22

    Olivia Baccash, a 2004 Ross School graduate, died at her East Hampton Village house on Friday. She was 22.

    A memorial service will be held on Saturday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on James Lane in East Hampton at 5 p.m. Arrangements were being handled by Brockett Funeral Home in South­ampton.