Friends and family will gather to celebrate the life of Dianne L. MacDonald on Saturday from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at the Montauk Community Church. Ms. MacDonald, who was 71 and lived in Montauk for over 40 years, died on Dec. 10 after a brief illness.
Alice Recktenwald died of complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder at home in East Hampton on Saturday, with her family around her. She had been in hospice care for a week, after being ill for a several years.
Mrs. Recktenwald had worked at the Bulova Watch Company of Sag Harbor Industries, and later at the East Hampton House. She eventually started a home care service for private clients.
She was born on Oct. 2, 1930, one of nine children of Lucy Rosalia Bennett and James Louis Leedham.
Mrs. Recktenwald grew up in East Hampton and went to school in Huntington, where her mother’s family used to spend time. In 1968 she married Charles (Jed) Recktenwald, who used to set type at The Star after school. They had six daughters, of whom four survive: Linda Mackey of Alabama, Charlotte Jarvis of Sag Harbor, Tonya Bennett of East Hampton, and Sarah Scainetti, who had moved in with her and, through her care, had extended her life by three years longer than the doctors had predicted.
Her daughters Sandra Jarvis of East Hampton and Alice Sheridan of Alabama died last year.
Three sisters survive, Florence Valerio of Ronkonkoma, and Gloria King and Lois Bono of East Hampton. Her other siblings, Edna Van Dyke, Ella King, Mary Harrington, and Nettie King, all of East Hampton, and her brother, George Leedham of Kings Park, died before her.
Countless grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild also survive.
Once she had more time, two of her daughters said, she “discovered she had the ability to sketch and paint pictures and it became her passion until she fell sick” at 85.
In addition to painting, she was also a devoted Jehovah’s Witness, which “gave her strength and comfort through her many years of illness,” her family said. She was a longtime member of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Water Mill, where a funeral will be held on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tomorrow evening from 7 to 9, the family will receive visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a eulogy given at 8.
She will be buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony at Cedar Lawn Cemetery.
Edwin Lewis Geus, an East Hampton resident for the past 50 years, died on Feb. 25 in Burlingame, Calif. He was 80 and had been ill with multiple myeloma for nine years. A fifth-generation Californian, his forebears traveled by covered wagon from Virginia and Vermont in the early 1840s to settle in the West.
Mr. Geus was born March 19, 1938, in Alturas, Calif., to George Kenneth Geus of Oakland and Winola Steward of Lake City, Calif. He was raised on his grandfather Bide Steward’s ranch in Surprise Valley, in Modoc County. He rode a horse to school and home again until seventh grade, when he moved to Klamath Falls, Ore., and attended the Sacred Heart Academy for three years. He returned to Surprise Valley for his senior year of high school. After graduating, he attended Sacramento State College but later returned to help his grandfather run the ranches the family operated in Lake City, Nev., and Lorella, Ore.
On May 20, 1961, he and Averill Dayton were married in the Fort Bidwell Church, in Modoc County. Miss Dayton, formerly of East Hampton, was then managing a local radio station. A year later, the couple moved to Eugene, Ore., where Mr. Geus worked for National Cylinder Gas and where the couple’s two children, George Sherrill Geus and Jeanne Frances Geus, were born. A company transfer took the family to Portland, Ore., in 1967.
The family returned to East Hampton and a more stable life in 1968, where Mr. Geus entered the real estate business, a career he would pursue for the next 50 years. During those years, he served as president of the Eastern Suffolk Board of Realtors and on the New York State Board of Realtors’ jurisdiction committee. He was a member of the East Hampton Fire Department and served for three years as captain of Company 3. For 21 years, much of his time and energy were dedicated to the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance, for which he served as chief, assistant chief, treasurer, and as an emergency medical technician. He also served on the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church vestry. For the past four years, he served on the town’s architectural review board.
Mr. Geus had many interests, including traveling, history, music, and photography. Those who knew him well were familiar with his passion for antique furniture and glass.
Mr. Geus is survived by his wife, Averill Geus of East Hampton, his children, George Geus of Lancaster, Pa., and Jeanne Geus Hutson of East Hampton, and two grandchildren. Another grandchild died before him. A sister, Georgia Steward Lile of Arizona, and a brother, James Faulstich of Newcastle, Calif., also survive, as do two cousins.
Mr. Geus was cremated. He will be buried next to his grandfather in Lake City Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on April 6 at 11 a.m.
Laura Anne Krupinski, a former model, jewelry designer, and interior decorator, died after being found unresponsive on Feb. 25, at a motel in Hampton Bays where she had been living. She was 53. Her cause of death was initially not determined, pending the results of an examination by the Suffolk Medical Examiner’s office.
Ms. Krupinski was the daughter of the late Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, who with her son, William Maerov, died in a small plane crash off Amagansett on June 2 of last year.
Ms. Krupinski was born on Feb. 1, 1966, at Southampton Hospital. She attended Most Holy Trinity Catholic School in East Hampton and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn., before enrolling in Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. After college, she lived in New York City and Bedford, N.Y.
Her former husband, Lance Maerov, whom she married in August 1993, and daughter, Charlotte Maerov, survive her, as does her second husband, Juan Cerda, whom she married in October 2008.
Ms. Krupinski’s mother was a member of the Bistrian family, and Ms. Krupinski grew up near members of her extended family at a house on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett. She had “great taste and an excellent eye in fashion, jewelry, and home” design, said an aunt, Barbara Borg of Amagansett.
After her parents bought the 1770 House Inn in East Hampton, it was Ms. Krupinski who updated its interiors. Her modeling work included a Vogue U.K. cover story with the actor Matt Dillon photographed by Bruce Weber in 1983 while she was with the Wilhelmina agency.
A memorial service for Dean F. Kirschner of East Hampton will be held on March 30 at 11 a.m. at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett. A family service will be held in Bayville, in Nassau County, on May 4. Mr. Kirschner, who died on Feb. 28, was 61.
Jonathon Hren, whose friends called him Jono when he was growing up in East Hampton, a nickname that came to be because he was one of three Johns who were best childhood friends, and that lasted, died of lung cancer on March 4 at the Kanas Hospice Center on Quiogue at the age of 66.
Mr. Hren graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology with a degree in biological science in 1975 and returned home to help run his family’s nursery business in Amagansett for several years. A guitarist, he released an album of original songs titled “Jono — Right from the Start” in 2001.
He was born to Joseph A. Hren Sr. and the former Elizabeth Fee at Southampton Hospital on Feb. 9, 1953, and graduated from East Hampton High School in 1971. At college in Florida, he became an active member of the Beta Nu chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha and remained involved with the fraternity over the years, editing some of its history books and proudly displaying related paraphernalia.
Family members said Mr. Hren was fascinated by trains and enjoyed long trips by rail. He had a collection of model trains, which he would set up at home and as an elaborate display at the family nursery at Christmastime. He also loved farming, cooking, and “anything air and space related, from building model planes and rockets to star-gazing with his large collection of telescopes,” which he donated to the East Hampton School District.
Mr. Hren had three sisters who died before him: Elizabeth Levy, Joanne (Babe) Fecteau, and Judith Sanchez, as well as a brother, Joseph Hren II. He is survived by his sister Marion Cantwell of Taos, N.M., and by two brothers, James Hren of Amagansett and Laurence Hren of Carlsbad, Calif.
The family is planning a celebration of Mr. Hren’s life in the summer. He had donated his body to the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University and no services were held.
Memorial contributions have been suggested for the Kanas Center for Hospice Care at 1 Meeting House Road, Quiogue 11978. The website address is eeh.org/hospice-care/inpatient.
Wayne Otto Gauger was one of the top salesmen in the country during his decades-long career as parts manager for Hull Chevrolet in Southampton, and he was just as industrious when it came to his prodigious home vegetable garden and passion for hunting and fishing, all hobbies he enjoyed sharing with his children.
“We used to have two freezers in our basement in Sag Harbor — one was for fish and game, and one was for the vegetables he grew,” Mr. Gauger’s son Stephen Gauger said last week. “I remember we used to shell peas and lima beans till my fingers were sore. He grew everything.”
Mr. Gauger, who was 86, died of congestive heart failure on Feb. 23 at Southampton Hospital.
He was born to Erwin Gauger and the former Jeannette Hart in Milwaukee on Feb. 4, 1933.
After finishing high school in Wisconsin, Mr. Gauger attended Naval Air Technical Training Centers in Memphis and Jacksonville, Fla. It was in Florida that he met his future wife, Mary Ann Santacroce, a native of Sag Harbor.
The Gaugers were married on July 2, 1955, and moved to Sag Harbor to build a house and start a family. Mr. Gauger was a dedicated usher at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church and a Cub Scout leader when their children were young, and he enjoyed participating in local bowling leagues for many years.
After his retirement from Hull Chevrolet, he kept working, as a delivery man for the Bridgehampton Florist. He and his wife were married for 59 years. Mrs. Gauger died in 2014.
In addition to Stephen Gauger, who lives in Springs, Mr. Gauger is survived by two other sons, Christopher Gauger and Joseph Gauger, both of Springs, and a daughter, Ann Gauger of Greene, N.Y. He leaves six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a sister, Lynne Goldbach of Fairbanks, Alaska.
The date of a service has yet to be determined. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry, P.O. Box 1241, Sag Harbor 11963, or the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons at arfhamptons.org.
Kathleen Tobin Giardina of East Hampton, an environmental engineer who helped companies develop eco-friendly practices, died of cancer on Feb. 9 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care on Quiogue. She was 63 and had been ill for more than two years.
Born on Feb. 7, 1956, in Yonkers to the former Lois Woods and Thomas Michael Tobin Jr., she graduated in 1978 from the State University at Stony Brook with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She worked in broadcast media in California for a time and changed career paths to earn a degree in chemical engineering from City College of New York. She later received state certification as an engineer.
She began her professional career at the Environmental Protection Agency but left to work for NYNEX, the telephone company that is now part of Verizon. During her career, she oversaw the company’s removal of underground gasoline and oil tanks, developed a process that removes lead from telephone cables, and helped implement health and safety audits at facilities in Asia, Australia, and Europe. Before taking a disability leave from Verizon in 2017, she was the company’s corporate environmental manager.
In 1989, she married Paul Giardina, an East Hampton resident, and the couple raised two sons. She took an active role in their education and served as a class mother at the private Collegiate School when they lived in the city. She was also a partner with her husband in Cedar Meadow, a horse farm in East Hampton that breeds thoroughbred racehorses. Their horses have earned more than $1 million in prize money.
Ms. Giardina was a member of the East Hampton Methodist Church, where Pastor Denise Allen will officiate at a memorial service at 1 p.m. on March 24. Her family said she loved traveling, hiking, and birdwatching, and they have suggested memorial donations to the Audubon Society at audubon.org.
In addition to her husband, Ms. Giardina is survived by two sons, Charles Tobin Giardina of Hayward, Calif., and Thomas Tobin Giardina of Madison, Wis. Her siblings, Joan Wayne of Bellingham, Wash., Christine Tobin Smith of June Lake, Calif., and Patricia Tobin of New York, also survive.
Janet Snowden Wainwright, who had been head of the law department at MCI, a telecommunications company, died of lung cancer on March 6 at her home in Takoma Park, Md. A longtime summer resident of Wainscott, she was 71 and had been ill for four years.
Ms. Wainwright’s family described her as a “natural, charismatic leader.” She started her 15-year career at MCI as a paralegal and ultimately earned the top legal post despite lacking a degree from college or law school.
Born on Dec. 20, 1947, in Rockville Centre to the former Janet Parsons and Stuyvesant Wainwright II, Ms. Wainwright spent her early years in Wainscott, where she attended the hamlet’s tiny school. She participated in junior activities at the Maidstone Club and began a lifelong love of reading by exploring the stacks and checking out books from the East Hampton Library. Later in life, she often read two mystery novels a day, often choosing from among Georges Simenon’s many novels.
An eager learner, Ms. Wainwright studied archaeology, antiquities, and early Christian art, and the practice of restoring classical art. Before she became ill, she participated in a restoration project in Cortona, Italy, and taught herself to speak Italian.
She also taught herself to speak Spanish and used that language to help migrants deal with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In later life, she became an artist. Taking classes at several community colleges and universities, she developed a technique for painting tiles depicting the lives of saints and obscure medieval legends, as well as scenes of her own invention.
In 1967, she married Charles Brandon Waring, and the couple raised two children in Bluffton, S.C. They later ran the Sweetfield Leather Company, which manufactured and sold leather goods on Savannah’s historical River Street in South Carolina. The marriage ended in divorce.
She married Edmund Kirby-Smith IV at St. Luke’s Church in East Hampton in 1979. They lived in a house next door to her mother in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where they raised a daughter. The family later moved to Takoma Park. Her second marriage also ended in divorce
Ms. Wainwright is survived by her children, Snowden Maria Kirby-Smith of Takoma Park, Md., Benjamin Alston Waring of Mingo, W.Va., and Belle Buchanan Waring of Singapore. Other survivors include her siblings, Stuyvesant Wainwright III of East Hampton and Homosassa, Fla., Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright of Wainscott and New York City, and Laura Livingston Wainwright of Martha’s Vineyard. Two grandchildren also survive.
A memorial service will be held at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Bridgehampton at 4 p.m. on June 22.
The family has suggested donations to the Gift Processing Department of the American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York 10004, or to Kids in Need of Defense, an organization that provides legal representation for migrant children who have been separated from their parents while seeking asylum in the United States. That address is KIND, 1201 L Street, N.W., 2nd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005.
When Amy Sheree Parker was a child, she loved floral design and singing in the choir at Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, where her mother, Queen Davis-Parks, served as a deacon. Throughout her life, Ms. Parker’s connection with her mother remained especially strong.
The two of them enjoyed shopping together and watching TV shows such as “Touched by an Angel.” After Ms. Parker’s health struggles accelerated last year following open-heart surgery, she asked her sister, Aleta Williams, to make her a pie — and not just any pie. She wanted some serious comfort food.
“She wanted a sweet potato pie from my [late] mother’s recipe, which I had,” said Ms. Williams, who lives in Washington, D.C. “I sent it to her with her daughter and she called me and said, ‘It tastes just like Mom used to make!’ — which I took to mean it was a pretty good pie.”
Ms. Parker, who was 50, died on Friday of complications of the flu and heart failure at Southampton Hospital. She was born on July 30, 1968, in Southampton, grew up in East Hampton, and most recently lived in Calverton. She graduated from East Hampton High School in 1986.
She is survived by her fiancé, Rodney Brumsey, and her children, Blake Parker and Dayshawn Boynton, both of East Hampton, and Azaria Davis of Alexandria, Va. She is also survived by her stepfather, Leon Parks, and her stepmother, Patricia Gill-Parks, both of Southampton, and by her father, James Parker of Hampton, Va.
In addition to her sister, she leaves a brother, Chris Parker of East Hampton, a stepbrother, Gregory Parks of Winston-Salem, N.C., and a stepsister, Tiffany Parks of Laurel, Md.
Ms. Parker was cremated. The family intends to bury her ashes with those of her mother.
A memorial service will be held on April 7 at 1:30 p.m. at Triune Baptist Church in Sag Harbor, the congregation she belonged to at the time of her death.