Janet Jones Schwitter, who for 50 years had a house in Amagansett, died in New York City in the company of her family on Jan. 30. She was 92 and had been ill for one month.
“Janet’s greatest joy came from filling her house in Amagansett with friends and family and serving them all her famous lasagna,” said her family, who added that she spent a lifetime loving, nurturing, and feeding others. “She also relished a competitive game of bridge or tennis, especially when one of her children was her partner.”
Ms. Schwitter was born in Brooklyn to Homer Jones and the former Mildred LaFauci on Sept. 20, 1932. The oldest of six children, she grew up in Brooklyn and Springfield Gardens, Queens, attended Bay Ridge High School, and took courses at C.W. Post College. “She was always a curious learner,” her family said.
While working at Macy’s and Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, she met her future husband, Frank Schwitter, who was on leave from the Air Force, at a mutual friend’s wedding shower in Springfield Gardens.
According to her family, “Frank looked up and said he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. His recollection of that moment was that he said, ‘I know all of the girls in Springfield Gardens, but I don’t know you.’ ” They were married on Aug. 13, 1955. Mr. Schwitter survives.
While living in Huntington, the couple bought a house in the Amagansett dunes in 1975. From 1979 to 1982, they lived in Geneva, where Mr. Schwitter, a partner in Arthur Andersen, ran the company’s office. When they returned to the United States, they resettled in Manhattan.
In the 1980s they moved to a house on Bluff Road in Amagansett, which is still in the family. Ms. Schwitter was a volunteer at the Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton, and a member of the Amagansett Beach Association and the Amagansett Village Improvement Society’s tennis group. She ran Turtle Bay Antiques in the hamlet from 1996 to 2001.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by three children, Jane Keihn of Reston, Va., Glenn Schwitter of Avon, Conn., and Craig Schwitter of Montclair, N.J. Seven grandchildren also survive, as do two sisters, Carole Pasquarelli of New York City and Marilyn Kehl of Plandome. Three of her siblings, Ann Gerbosi, Alfred Jones, and Kathleen Jones, died before her.
A small service for family and friends will take place during the summer in Amagansett. Lasagna will be served, but it will not be the same, her family said.
