Roseanne K. Lebwith of Springs was a real estate agent who for three decades helped people buy and sell homes through firms including Barry Fleishman, Devlin-McNiff, and Dayton Halstead. Among her large network of friends, clients, and co-workers, she was well known for her integrity and kindness, her family wrote.
Mrs. Lebwith, who was known as Rosie to loved ones, died of a stroke at home in Springs on Nov. 1 after a brief hospital stay. She was 91.
She was born in the Bronx on Jan. 27, 1933, to Max Kubel and the former Sarah Greenspan. She spent part of her childhood in Miami, where her father, an artist, had a job as an animator for cartoon characters, including Betty Boop.
She graduated from high school in the Bronx and had earned a four-year scholarship to City College, but opted to enter the work force to help her parents. She took a job as assistant to the dean at New York University’s School of Dentistry, where she met her future husband, Dr. Howard John Lebwith. The two were friends first for a long time and finally married in May 1966.
The Lebwiths raised their children first in Manhattan and then Westchester, before moving to Springs in 1972. They also had what they called a “winter sanctuary” in Akumal, Mexico, where they spent winters for 20 years and made many friends.
Mrs. Lebwith spent time volunteering with the Springs Improvement Society and at the Springs School. The Lebwiths enjoyed dining out frequently in East Hampton with friends.
Dr. Lebwith, who was a dentist, died in November 2020. Mrs. Lebwith “missed Howard so much every day since he passed, and now they can be together as one again,” her family wrote.
Mrs. Lebwith leaves a daughter, Jessie Kenny of East Hampton, a son, David Lebwith of Ventura, Calif., and three grandchildren who called her Grandma Rosie — Liam, Georgia, and Carlee Kenny.
The family will receive visitors on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. The service is a joint celebration of life for both Mrs. Lebwith and Dr. Lebwith, who never had a memorial service because he died during the Covid pandemic. “Their ashes will be combined as one, as they were so connected and in love,” the family wrote.
Memorial donations have been suggested to East End Hospice, online at eeh.org, or to East Hampton Meals on Wheels, online at ehmealsonwheels.org.
