Obituaries

Frances Edith Wright Bennett of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., died at home on Feb. 6 of cardiac arrest at the age of 99. Mrs. Bennett was married on Aug. 23, 1939, to Richard Bacon Bennett of Old Saybrook, Conn., who had East Hampton roots, and she had frequently visited here.

Gandolfo Vincent DiBlasi of Manhattan, a renowned lawyer who was known to friends and colleagues as Vince, died on Jan. 14 from complications of pneumonia. He was 64.

Giacomo A. Lucente, a World War II Army veteran and a former bartender at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post when it was on Main Street in East Hampton, died of lung disease last Thursday at the age of 90.

Herbert Haucke of Montauk, a partner in an insurance firm in Manhattan that he built into a successful business, died on Feb. 1 at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead after a fall. He was 84.

Lisa Anne Hegner Ward, a Montauk woman who was devoted to her church, her children’s schools, and to East Hampton High School’s basketball teams, died at home on Feb. 5. She was 55.

Michel Berty, an international businessman and IT pioneer, died at home in Wainscott on Feb. 12 of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 78.

Mary Ellen Thiele Rooney, a writer and photographer with a great sense of adventure who was born in Bridgehampton — and was for many years one of the East End’s inspiring personalities — died at home in Hudson Heights, N.Y., on Feb. 5 after an illness. An indomitable spirit, known to friends as Reggie, she was 83.

Visiting hours for Mary Ellen Thiele Rooney will be Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Brockett Funeral Home on Hampton Road in Southampton, with a prayer service at 3 p.m.

Burial will be private on Monday at the Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton. A memorial event will be planned in New York City for a later date with details to follow.  

Ms. Rooney, who was known to friends as Reggie, died on Feb. 5 in New York City. She was 83.

Alfred G. Osterweil, an attorney who represented several police unions, died of pneumonia on Jan. 29 in Many, La. He was 86.

Anita Higgins Salembier, a longtime summer resident of Egypt Lane in East Hampton, died on Feb. 1 at home in Locust Valley. Mrs. Salembier was 96.

Anne Gibson Clark Washburn of Palm Beach, Fla., and a longtime summer resident of East Hampton, died in Palm Beach on Jan. 28. She was 98.

Christopher Louis Russo, who was the East Hampton Town highway superintendent for 18 years and had been chief of the Amagansett Fire Department and a founder of its ambulance company, died of congestive heart failure at home in Amagansett on Jan. 31, a few days before his 76th birthday.

Dorothy Marie Avallone, 85, who had worked in upper management at the Stern’s department store in East Hampton, died of congestive heart failure at Casa de la Luz Hospice in Tucson on Jan. 26.

Enid Roth of New York City and Amagansett, who had a long career in television, died on Jan. 27 at the Bristal, an assisted-living facility in Holtsville. She was 87.

James Robert McCrosson, who ran a real estate development and construction business in the Sag Harbor area, died on Jan. 10 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 69.

John Pellegrino, who lived on and off in East Hampton and Springs from the 1970s through the early 2000s, died in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Jan. 24. He was 76.

Leona Needleman, a resident of East Hampton for many years before moving to Pompano Beach, Fla., died in Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 31. She was 86.

Maurice Curran, a telecommunications sales executive who took up beekeeping in retirement, died in his sleep on Dec. 21 in Westchester County. He was 60.

Roseanne Monaco, a resident of East Hampton for 25 years and a part-time resident of Montauk for 20 years before that, died at home in Morristown, N.J., on Jan. 25 after a long illness. She was 86.

Vincent A. D’Angelo of East Hampton died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Jan. 8, while on his way to Sammy’s Beach, where he had gone to hunt. He was 73.

William P. Rayner, a watercolorist and travel writer who was the editorial business manager of Condé Nast for 30 years, died in New York City on Jan. 22 at the age of 88.

Services are to be announced by the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton for Christopher L. Russo, a former East Hampton Town highway superintendent who died at home in Amagansett yesterday at age 75. 

Mr. Russo became highway superintendent in 1990 and served in that elected post for 18 years.

Details about his funeral arrangements and an obituary for him will appear in a future issue.

A service for Miriam Oxenhorn of Sag Harbor, who died on Jan. 21 at the age of 81, will be held today at 11 a.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Burial will follow at Green River Cemetery in Springs. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

An obituary in last week’s paper for William J. Fleming omitted the organizations to which his family had suggested donations. They are: the Long Island chapter of the Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 5125, East Hampton 11937; the Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York 10011 or irishrep.org; the Thomas Moran Trust, 101 Main Street, East Hampton 11937; Yellowstone National Park at yellowstone.org, or a charity of choice.

George Knoblach of Montauk, an accomplished photographer and pioneering spearfisherman, died on Jan. 24 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. He was 92.

Geraldine Frances Tomitz, who ran a taxi company and a cake business in Montauk, died in Henderson, Nev., on Dec. 28 of injuries after being hit by a car in a parking lot. She was 79.

Kenneth James McFall of East Hampton, who had been recognized repeatedly for his outstanding work as an educator both here and abroad, died on Jan. 17 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue.

After 38 years in uniform, including for the East Hampton Village Police Department and as a Suffolk County deputy sheriff, Kenneth Lambert died on Jan. 7 in Port Charlotte, Fla. He was 82 and had leukemia.

Visiting hours for Mary B. Conaty of East Hampton, who died on Sunday, are to be held today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a funeral Mass at Most Holy Trinity Church at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, followed by burial at the church cemetery.

May Rodney Kelman, a noted quilter and resident of Sag Harbor for more than 70 years, died last Thursday at the age of 103.