Skip to main content

Florence Thiele

Thu, 04/28/2022 - 10:21

Sept. 6, 1927 - April 15, 2022

Florence Thiele and her husband, the late Roger H. Thiele, started spending time in East Hampton at his parents’ house on Lily Pond Lane in the early 1950s. Mrs. Thiele died of congestive heart failure on April 15 at Mariner Sands, a private community in Stuart, Fla. She was 94 and had been ill for only a short time.

She was born in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 6, 1927, the daughter of the former Helen L. Hapeman and Spencer Toll Lainhart Sr. She Lived with her parents there until she married Mr. Thiele in the old Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach on Feb. 26, 1954; he was from Scarsdale, N.Y. She graduated from the Graham Ecke School in Palm Beach and attended Ogontz Junior College in Philadelphia, which later became part of Penn State University.

Mrs. Thiele was a devoted volunteer, working every summer at the Crippled Children Society in Palm Beach as well as at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., where she was one of the first hundred volunteers when it opened its doors. She was active in the Junior League of Westchester, the Sleepy Hollow Garden Club, and the Second Reformed Church in Tarrytown.

Modeling in the Palm Beaches was something she enjoyed for about 10 years and was in demand for, her family said. She wore the Empress Josephine Diamond Tiara the first time it was shown in Palm Beach by Van Cleef & Arpels. She also did modeling work for Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday magazine, Palm Beach Life, and The Social Spectator.

She and her husband lived in North Tarrytown for 32 years before moving to Mariner Sands in 1986. As well as being members of the Maidstone Club here, they were also members of the Mariner Sands Country Club in Stuart and former members of the Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Mrs. Thiele enjoyed the games of croquet, golf, and tennis, as well as playing in hand and foot card games, somewhat like canasta, which she hosted weekly at her house.

Mrs. Thiele’s stepdaughter, Karen Eighmy McVie, died in 2002. Her two daughters, Deborah T. Nadjadi of Pleasantville, N.Y., and Wendy T. Burns of Wanaque, N.J., survive, as does her son, Christopher E. Thiele of Bondville, Vt. She leaves nine grandchildren: Kasey Nadjadi, Tara Burns, Nicholas Burns, Travis Thiele, Tucker Thiele, Dillon Thiele, Tyne Thiele, Raleigh Thiele, and Devon Thiele. Nine great-grandchildren also survive: Auden Thiele, Nalani Thiele, Jameson Thiele, Avienda Thiele, Stella Thiele, Teagan Thiele, Rowan Thiele, Adeline Thiele, and Kava Kraft.

A memorial service will be held at the Mariner Sands Chapel on May 14, with interment of ashes at the Chapel Gardens to follow.

 

Villages

Springs Food Pantry Sees the Need, Addresses It

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

Jun 26, 2025

A Newsletter on Being a Jew in Today’s America

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

Jun 26, 2025

Item of the Week: The Hemerocallis Garden, 1962

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

Jun 26, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.