A lover of wildlife, Else Anna Grimm, a year-round resident of Montauk since 1991, had friendly relationships with the swans, deer, ducks, and birds who live on Fort Pond. For 20 years, her family said, she built purple martin houses along the banks of the pond and recorded when the flocks arrived and how many chicks were born.
After she came, by way of Brazil, to the United States from Germany, she changed her given name, Else, to Elke (though not legally). People here were calling her “Elsie,” her family explained, which apparently reminded her of Borden Dairy’s cartoon cow.
Ms. Grimm died on March 29 at home after a two-month illness. She was 92.
She was a true people person, the family said, who liked a good time so much that if things were too tame, “she was happy to instigate some fun.”
“Adventurous, she loved traveling, seeing new places and things,” and meeting new people. She was especially fond of children.
Ms. Grimm was born in Blankenloch, Germany, on May 10, 1930, to Friedrich and Anna Nagel, and educated there. In 1952, a year before emigrating to Brazil, she married Willi Grimm.
Growing up in Germany during World War II left an enduring mark. From ages 9 to 15 she worried about bombs, and she was once actually shot at from a low-flying British fighter plane. The family said that when faced with life’s obstacles, she would say, “I’m a survivor, I survived the war and I can survive this.”
In Brazil, from 1953 to 1959, she lived in Sao Paulo, working for a company that made clothing, before moving to Richmond Hill, Queens. There she worked at the Homestead Gourmet Shop in Kew Gardens, a German deli whose website says it resembles “a Disney vision of the Old World.”
After the family moved to Babylon in 1972, she managed a clothing store in Bay Shore. From the 1960s on, they boated to harbors on Long Island; Montauk was a favorite destination of her son, William Grimm, who enjoyed the fishing and charter boats.
The Grimms bought a small property with five cottages on Fort Pond in 1980 and retired there in 1991. She volunteered at the Montauk Community Church rummage sales until 2012.
In addition to her son, who lives in Montauk, Ms. Grimm is survived by six grandchildren. They are Jessica Grimm-Lyon of Bennington, Vt., Carl Grimm of Memphis, Jason Grimm of Brooklyn, Daniel Grimm of Houston, and William and Rosemary Grimm, both of Montauk. She also leaves a brother, Hans Nagel, and a sister, Gretel Maier, both of Weingarten, Germany, and two great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2002.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Montauk Community Church, the Rev. Bill Hoffmann officiating. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Audubon Society, online at audubon.org, or the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, at arfhamptons.org.
