Paid Notice: Judith (Judy) Erdmann Makrianes died peacefully on May 11, 2025, at Essex Meadows Health Center in Essex, Connecticut.
She was a resident at Essex Meadows Retirement Community for the last 10 years, primarily with her companion Alec Robertson, Jr. who died in 2022. She is fondly remembered there for her charm, witty intelligence and as the life of the party.
Judy was born on August 22, 1930, in New York City, the daughter of Wilma Kohler and Sturtevant Erdmann. Raised there and in New Canaan, Connecticut, she spent her summers in East Hampton, New York. She was the granddaughter of noted summer resident Dr. John F. Erdmann and his wife, of New York City, who built their iconic summer home “Coxwould” on Lily Pond Lane.
A graduate of Bennington College with a master’s degree from the Teachers College Columbia University, Judy was one of the first teachers at the Antilles School in St. Thomas U.S.V.I. She had many great friends and interesting adventures while teaching children there. After meeting James K. Makrianes, a widowed young father of four children, on the beach in East Hampton they married in 1960 and in 1965 they added their daughter, Mahady, to the family. Mr. Makrianes died in 2006 after their 45-year marriage happily spent in New York and East Hampton.
A third-generation member of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, Judy was an avid tennis player who filled the courts with her sense of humor and fine competitiveness. She was also actively engaged in Old East Hampton for decades.
In New York Judy was a volunteer at Bellevue Hospital counseling dying AIDS patients during the early scourge of the disease. Some patients became true friends, and she made a huge difference in their lives. She also spent 30 years as a committed volunteer tutor at the Boys Club of New York in Harlem in the after-school homework help program that she helped create. She was the first female member appointed to the Boys Club Board.
Judy is survived by her stepchildren Mary McLaughlin of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, James Makrianes of Newport, Rhode Island, and her daughter Mahady Makrianes of Melbourne, Florida. Her stepdaughters Susan Bacon Willams and Jane Makrianes predeceased her. She also leaves 10 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.
A private memorial will take place later this summer.
