Judith Ann Favata was especially good at staying in touch with people. She was concerned about what friends and family were going through and called them often to check in.
Ms. Favata, who was 70, died on March 7 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of complications of breast cancer.
She was “sweet and kind,” “strong and stubborn,” and “an amazing role model,” her daughter, Mandy Favata, said.
Ms. Favata worked as a receptionist at various automotive shops here, most recently at Advanced Auto Parts in East Hampton. “She was full of information about cars” and all sorts of other things, from “the best way to get a boiled egg to peel nicely” to “how to get stains out of anything,” her daughter said.
She was born on Nov. 19, 1954, in Flushing, Queens, to Henry (August) Bindrim and the former MaryAnne Patricia Roach, and grew up in Syosset. When she was in her late teens, she and her mother and sisters moved to Sammy’s Beach in East Hampton. She and a former husband, Blaise Favata, built a house here in 1982. Their daughter was born in 1986, and their son, Kyle, followed in 1989.
“She made the best eggs on toast, coleslaw, deviled eggs, and lemon meringue pie. And her Christmas cookies!” her daughter said, remembering the treats made from scratch when she and her brother were young. She crocheted hats, sweaters, scarves, and blankets for her children.
Her favorite animal was the wolf, and “you could trust her to almost always have a tie-dyed shirt,” often with a wolf on it.
When her son was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1990s, “she battled so long,” her daughter said. He died on Mother’s Day in 2009 at the age of 19, and Ms. Favata became involved in helping other parents of sick children navigate the challenges of dealing with doctors and insurance companies so that “those parents didn’t have to go through the pain she went through. It made her happy to help them.”
Her grandson, Kyle Clay Lynch, was born in 2009 on what would have been her son’s 20th birthday. That same year, Ms. Favata was diagnosed with breast cancer. “She far surpassed the doctor’s life expectations and she almost never complained,” her daughter wrote.
Along with her daughter and grandson, she is survived by her twin sister, June Bindrim-Bennett of Springs, and two older sisters, Gail Urban of Roanoke, Va., and Jane Fasullo of Old Field.
A service will be held today at 4:30 p.m. at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett. A gathering will follow at her house on Banks Court in East Hampton.
