Loretta A. Goetz, who was well-known for her knitting and her service to East Hampton Meals on Wheels, died at home in East Hampton on Dec. 20 of cardiac arrest after having a stroke. She was 88 years old and had Alzheimer’s disease for four years.
After her arrival in East Hampton in the late 1980s, Mrs. Goetz gathered together a group of women for friendly, informal knitting sessions. Her family said she loved to make sweaters, scarves, mittens, and Afghans for her children, grandchildren, and other relatives. The knitting group continued to meet at her house to keep her company in her later years as her health declined, even though she could no longer knit.
Mrs. Goetz was born in Brooklyn on May 18, 1931, to Max and Lena Seebacher. She grew up in Brooklyn and attended Richmond Hill High School in Queens.
In April of 1951, about five years after she finished high school, she married Arthur Frank Goetz. They met at a social function while Mr. Goetz was on leave from the Marine Corps. The couple would have three children, including a daughter, Cheryl Anne, who died in infancy.
Mrs. Goetz stayed at home with the children for a time before going to work as a waitress. She later took a job as the office manager for Interactive Marketing Systems in New York City, and worked until the late 1980s, when she and Mr. Goetz retired to live in East Hampton full time in the summer house they had built many years before. Mr. Goetz died in 1992.
Mrs. Goetz was a volunteer with Meals on Wheels for 10 years, and was a member of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton and the Amagansett Presbyterian Church.
She leaves a brother, Richard Seebacher, who lives in Pennsylvania, a sister, Helen Den Braven, who lives in New Jersey, and two children, Bruce Goetz of East Hampton and Gary Goetz of Venice, Fla. She also had six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Goetz was cremated. Her family will hold a private memorial service in East Hampton in April. Memorial donations have been suggested to Meals on Wheels, 33 Newtown Lane, Suite 205, East Hampton 11937.
