Obituaries

Margaret Santacroce of Sag Harbor, a skilled seamstress who was called Peggy, died on Jan. 30 at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore. She was 91.

Rosemary Herrick Jackson, a graphic designer and photographer who became an ordained Episcopal priest in her 50s and opened her own retreat center, died on Feb. 14 in Newport, R.I. Known as Posy, she was 75.

Howard M. Epstein, an editor and publishing executive who was president of Facts on File, a news digest and reference publishing company, from 1975 until 1990, died on March 1 in Manhattan of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 96.

John George Burkle Jr., lately of Springs, a former TWA air freight supervisor at Kennedy Airport, died of heart failure on Feb. 5 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 73.

Patricia A. O’Brien, a bookkeeper who lived in Sag Harbor for almost 50 years, died on Dec. 28 at home in Rockaway, N.J., after a brief illness.

Christine Stanley, a playwright and poet formerly of Sag Harbor, died of heart failure on Friday at Albany Medical Center. She was 87.

Visiting hours for Patricia Eames of East Hampton, who died on Tuesday, will be held Thursday, March 2, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.

Billie Kalbacher, who with her husband started the Kalbacher’s Auto and Marine service shop in Springs, died on Feb. 14 at San Simeon on the Sound in Greenport. She was 95.

Peter Joseph Deleski Jr., who had been a captain of the Sag Harbor Fire Department’s Otter Hose Company and a 21-year honorary member of the department, died last Thursday at the age of 80.

Susan Mintzer of Montauk and New York City, a psychoanalyst in private practice, died on Jan. 18 in the city. She was 80.

Barbara Brown Albright, visited by generations of students on Flag Day, died in Sagaponack on Sunday, in the house that had been in her late husband’s family since 1720.

Barbara Jo Brundige, a teacher, school and summer camp owner and director, real estate broker, and volunteer, died of cancer on Feb. 9. The part-time Sag Harbor resident was 77.

Kay Simonson Waterbury, who made service to others her life, died at home in East Hampton on Feb. 2.

Sonia Gaviola, who helped start a number of Montauk businesses, died of complications of cancer on Jan. 23 in West Virginia.

Alexander Russell, a chef who began working in restaurants as a teenager in East Hampton and went on to work in kitchens from Japan to Florida to New Orleans to Zurich as well as on two yachts, died on New Year’s Day in Sag Harbor.

Joan A. Ehren, a former president of the Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton and of the Friends of Guild Hall, died on Jan. 18 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital after having been ill for several weeks.

Linda Suzanne Deeb Metcalf, who owned the Lume candle store in Amagansett for 12 years and lived in that hamlet for more than 20, died of dementia on Dec. 28 at the Bellhaven Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care in Brookhaven.

Maryanne Bennett of Sag Harbor, a nurse for more than 40 years, died of pulmonary fibrosis on Jan. 11 at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, having been ill for a year.

Visiting hours for David Grimes, who died at home in Montauk on Thursday, will be held on Tuesday from 1 to 3 and from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a firematic service at 7. A funeral will be held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk, with a celebration of his life to follow at the Montauket.

Catherine Babcock of East Hampton, a manager at Main Beach for 18 years, a school crossing guard, and a police matron starting in the 1960s, died at home on Dec. 12. She was 98.

Word has been received of the death of Patrick Abrams in Costa Rica in December. He had cancer. A Montauk resident for over two decades, he had lived in Costa Rica since the mid-1990s.

Shirley Wackley, a parishioner at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton who had worked at Osborne Insurance and the Strong Insurance Agency here, died of lung cancer at home in Boynton Beach, Fla., on Jan. 26. She was 87.

Stephen Randolph Gretz, a finance executive who had a house in East Hampton for 50 years, died in Chicago of a stroke on Jan. 21. Known as Randy, he was 74.

Barbara H. Scheerer, who served on the boards of the East Hampton Library, the East Hampton Village Planning Board, and the East Hampton Meals on Wheels, died at home here on Monday. She was 92.

Dr. Berry James Vaughan, a dentist with a private practice in East Hampton from 1974 until 2018, died on Jan. 7 at the Westhampton Care Center. He was 75 and had been ill with cancer and other health complications.

Frederick A. Terry Jr., an attorney and sportsman, philanthropist and scholar, died at home in East Hampton on Jan. 13. He was 90.

George D. Meredith, a co-founder and creative director of Gianettino & Meredith, a New Jersey advertising agency, died at home in Springs on Jan. 5. He was 82 and had been in declining health.

James Gerard Stier of Montauk, who had a long career with W.R. Grace & Company, a multinational with roots in materials, chemicals, and shipping, died at his son’s house in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Jan. 3. He was 94 and had been in hospice care for about two months.

Kathryn D. Vegessi, shoreside support for the Lazybones, a popular half-day party boat hailing out of Montauk operated by her husband, Capt. Michael Vegessi, died at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn on Jan. 8. She was 70.

Louis J. Sapienza, the owner of East Hampton Masonry Supply, died on Jan. 8 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 70 and had lived with heart disease for several years.