Skip to main content

Margaret Santacroce

Thu, 03/16/2023 - 08:44

Aug. 23, 1931 - Jan. 30, 2023

Margaret Santacroce of Sag Harbor, who was called Peggy, died on Jan. 30 at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, with her two children by her side. She was 91.

A stay-at-home wife and mother for most of her adult life, Mrs. Santacroce was also a skilled seamstress who did alterations for the Basailes clothing store on Washington Street and Whalers Cleaners on Main Street. She had many private clients as well, her family said. She sewed clothes for her children and grandchildren, made the wedding dresses for her daughter and daughter-in-law, and even created a mother-of-the-groom dress for herself.

Mrs. Santacroce was a member of the Old Whalers Church for many years. In an old family photograph, her father can be seen waving from the top of the church steeple.

She was born on Aug. 23, 1931, to Herbert Hildreth and the former Hilda Wagner of Sag Harbor. She attended the Bridgehampton School for a short time before graduating from Pierson High School in 1949. She was the last surviving member of that graduating class.

She went on to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she studied retailing and graduated in 1952. She then returned to Sag Harbor and went to work for the phone company. She also waitressed at Sal and Joe’s Restaurant on Main Street and at the Huntting Inn in East Hampton.

She married Joseph Santacroce, an Air Force veteran from Sag Harbor. He survives, as do their two children, Joseph Santacroce of Sag Harbor and Marla Santacroce of Center Moriches. She also leaves four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In addition to sewing, Mrs. Santacroce, who was an original board member of the Sag Harbor Youth Center, enjoyed baking and cooking. She especially loved to make fudge for holidays. She loved animals and often cared for injured cats, birds, squirrels, and feral cats that turned up at her house.

Mrs. Santacroce was cremated. Her family has suggested memorial donations to the Old Whalers Church, P.O. Box 1241, Sag Harbor 11963; the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, online at arfhamptons.org; the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center, 228 West Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays 11946, or the ASPCA Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 96929, Washington, D.C., 20077-7127.

 

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.