Obituaries

Corey Jay Bennett, who grew up in Springs and attended East Hampton High School, died of a drug overdose on April 27 in Florence Township, N.J. He was 30, and his last known place of residence was Long Beach, Calif.

Cyril R. Fitzsimons, an Irish barkeep whose duneside roadhouse on the Napeague stretch lives on in memory as an emblem of carefree summers past — when the rum flowed and sunburned people sang along to the sweet pulse of a steel-pan band — died on April 24 from complications of Covid-19.

Ronnie L. Wyche, a former resident of Wainscott and Sag Harbor who was a corrections sergeant with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, died last Thursday at Quantum Rehabilitation and Nursing in Middle Island. He was 67 and had been ill with Covid-19 for two weeks.

Shirley Anne Lesko Weinstein Mole of Sag Harbor, a singer and aficionado of the Great American Songbook, died on March 25 in Fort Mill, S.C., of complications related to congestive heart failure. She was 81.

Beryl Bernay, a part-time resident of Springs for many years, died in her sleep of complications of Covid-19 on March 29 at the Mary Manning Walsh Home in Manhattan, where she had been living for 16 months. She was 94.

Charles Thomas Mockler of Bridgehampton, a self-employed house painter, died of cancer on April 24 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care on Quiogue. He was 68 and had been ill for four months.

Cheryl Bedini, who had trained to be a lawyer but returned to her beloved Sag Harbor for good in 1993 to open the Java Nation coffee roastery on Main Street with her husband, Andres Bedini, died on April 22 at home of a heart attack. She was 55.     

Gene Friedman, who directed photography for television commercials and industrial films and made several short films about dance, including one featured in a recent Museum of Modern Art exhibition, died in his sleep at home in Wainscott on Saturday. He was 92. The cause was congestive heart failure.     

Geraldine S. Wasko Doyle, who was a guide at the World’s Fair in Queens and later was the owner-operator of a restaurant and catering businesses, died of Covid-19 on April 24 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. The longtime East Hampton resident, who had lived at the nursing home for about a year, was 86 years old and had been ill for two days.     

Jessica Chew Martin, who grew up in Montauk, died on April 1 at home in Larkhall, Scotland, of complications from Covid-19. Ms. Martin’s father, Thomas Edward Chew, died when she was a baby. She was raised by her mother, Deborah Burdick Chew Coen, and stepfather, Brian Coen. An obituary will appear in a future issue of The Star.

Joseph Francis DeDeyn, who lived for many years in group homes in East Hampton, died on April 19 of complications from the Covid-19 virus. He was 68.

Fifty of those who played with and against Kenny Weldon in Amagansett’s slow-pitch softball league during the course of almost half a century turned out at the Terry King ball field’s parking lot Saturday afternoon to wish him a fond, final farewell as Mr. Weldon’s daughters, Christine Indeglia and Melissa Wallace, played Carly Simon’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which had been his wish.     

Mary Elizabeth Falborn, a ninth-generation descendant of one of East Hampton’s early families, the Fields, died of complications of cancer treatment on April 20 at Vitas Inpatient Hospice in Rockledge, Fla. The Sag Harbor resident, formerly of East Hampton, was 93 and had been ill for eight months.     

Walter A. Nelson Jr., who grew up on Lake Montauk and founded Montauk Aquaculture Development, died of a brief illness on April 6 at the Bronx home of his daughter Karin O’Connor. He was 82.

Bobby Hopson, the Bridgehampton High School basketball team's career scoring leader and a Wagner College standout, died on Tuesday. The cause was diabetes-related.

James E. Potter of East Hampton, an executive with the InterContinental Hotels Group for 32 years, died of heart failure at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on April 14. He was 86.

His images of the deaths of thousands of elephants and other wildlife Kenya became the basis for the 1965 book "The End of the Game," which influenced a generation of artists and wildlife conservationists.

Rick Anthony Del Mastro, an executive in the out-of-home advertising industry who was a dedicated family man, civic leader, and philanthropist, died on April 15. A resident of Wainscott, he was 75 and had complications from Covid-19.

Alex Werner of Sag Harbor, a devoted surf fisherman who was deeply involved in the fishing community here, died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital last Thursday.

Stephen L. Friedes, M.D., of East Hampton died of pancreatic cancer at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue on April 7.

Jan Spoerri, a designer and builder of interactive museum exhibits, died at home on Cedar Street in East Hampton on April 7. He was 54 and had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, 11 months earlier.   

John B. Casale Jr., a former co-owner of the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club, died on April 8 at home in Manchester, Vt.  

Judith Walker Laughlin, who with her husband, Alexander Mellon Laughlin, owned a house on Ocean Avenue in East Hampton for over seven decades, died at her New York City home on March 31. She was 92 and had been in ill health for a long time.     

Suzanne Sayre McFarlane, a former East Hampton resident and descendent of Thomas Sayre, a founder of the Town of Southampton, died on March 8 at Peconic Landing in Greenport. The cause has not been determined, her family said.

Barbara Ann Johnson, who when young began summering on Jefferys Lane in East Hampton Village with her four siblings and her parents, Thomas A. and June Hess Kelly, and who later made the village her year-round home, died at the age of 87 on April 1 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She had been ill for about a year.

George Nicholas, who, along with his wife, Stacey, was the owner and operator of the Sunset Cove Marina and Cottages on Three Mile Harbor in Maidstone Park, East Hampton, died of complications from a fall on March 28.

Ira Hedges Washburn Jr., a former Ford Motor Company executive who lived on Windmill Lane in East Hampton, died on March 23 at Peconic Landing in Greenport.

James H. Loper Jr., a lifelong East Hampton resident until his retirement in 1997, died last Thursday at home in Hurlock, Md.

John Gordon Noakes, an award-winning advertising executive and a summer resident of Montauk, died on March 23 after having a stroke at a hospital in New Canaan, Conn.

Kathleen Ann Surrey, a night manager at Montauk Manor for many years, died of liver failure on March 16 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.