Frances Morey knew how to keep busy, and she did so into her 90s.
A member of the East Hampton School Board from 1978 to 1986, she also volunteered at the thrift shop at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton, attended a Monday knitting club at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, volunteered at the Most Holy Trinity School while her children were students there from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s, and volunteered for East Hampton Meals on Wheels for many years until close to her 95th birthday in June.
Mrs. Morey died at home in East Hampton on Nov. 13. She had congestive heart failure.
She and her future husband, Clayton P. Morey, both worked for the industrial designer Raymond Loewy Associates when they met at an office Christmas party in 1952. They were married on Aug. 29, 1953. She kept her last name as her middle name after her marriage.
Mrs. Morey stopped working in 1960, when the first of her five children was born. She loved being a mother and enjoyed cooking and baking — her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were renowned.
The Moreys moved to East Hampton in 1966. When her children were grown, Mrs. Morey returned to work in 1983 for Leonard Ackerman, an East Hampton attorney. She retired from that job in 1994, but then worked for Claude Okin at Sportime from 1996 to 2011, “before finally retiring for real,” he family wrote.
Frances Veronica White was born in Great Neck on June 30, 1929, the sixth of eight children of Richard A. White and the former Charlotte Fitzgerald.
She grew up in Great Neck and attended the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School. She went on to work as a secretary for Joan Payson, the first owner of the New York Mets, becoming a lifelong Mets fan in the process.
Her husband died in 2014. She is survived by her children, Clayton Morey Jr. of Wildwood, Fla., Clare Ouellette of Denver, Patricia Power of Glenwood, Mo., Susan Morey Rodriguez of Thornton, Colo., and Richard Morey of East Hampton. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Erik and Andrew Ouellette and Nalina and Malachi Rodriguez.
Her siblings all died before her.
The family received visitors on Sunday at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral service took place on Monday at Most Holy Trinity, with burial following at the church cemetery. The Rev. Peter Garry, a former priest at the church and a longtime friend of the family, officiated.
Donations have been suggested to East Hampton Meals on Wheels, 33 Newtown Lane, Suite 205, East Hampton 11937, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church at 79 Buell Lane, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church, P.O. Box 3035, Bridgehampton 11932, or the Wounded Warrior Project at woundedwarriorproject.org.
