Betty DeFriest of East Hampton, who was a longtime administrator in the town clerk’s office here, died on May 4 while visiting her daughter in North Carolina. She was 98 and had been ill since January.
She was born in Southold on July 5, 1924, to Jay M. Glover and the former H. Evelyna Anderson. Her mother died while giving birth to a baby, so the young Elizabeth Edna Glover was raised by her paternal grandparents. She graduated from Southold High School in 1941.
She married Irad Robert DeFriest in October 1947 and they moved to East Hampton’s Mill Hill Lane. Mrs. DeFriest was a member of the East Hampton First United Methodist Church, the Eastern Star, American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, and the East Hampton Power Squadron, for which she helped plan boat trips up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Mrs. DeFriest could often be found lunching at the town senior citizens center and playing cards with close friends and family members. She and her husband enjoyed boating aboard their 34-foot Albin cabin cruiser, the Bob-Lin, and taking bus trips to interesting destinations.
“She was an incredibly generous, kind, and patient woman,” wrote her family, who knew her as “Mom, Gram, or Gram-Gram.”
Mr. DeFriest died in April 2010. Mrs. DeFriest leaves a daughter, Linda D. Ehrlich of Denver, N.C., a son, Robert J. DeFriest of West Chester, Pa., and a daughter-in-law, Karen M. DeFriest of West Chester, “who was like another daughter” to her, her family said. Five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews survive, as does a sister, Cora G. Stall of Southold. An infant sister, Emma, and an older sister, Carol, died before her.
Services were held on May 17 at Calverton National Cemetery, where Mrs. DeFriest was buried. Her family has suggested memorial donations to the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center.
