Helen Elizabeth Eblen Sarfati was known for entertaining. A drama major in college at the University of Kentucky, she “had a beautiful soprano voice,” a “presence,” and “an amazing sense of humor,” her family said. “She could just make you laugh, sometimes with a turn of phrase and sometimes just with a look.”
She brought those traits to whatever she did, but patrons of the East Hampton Library, where she worked for many years, may remember in particular the annual Halloween shows she coordinated there, with costumed librarians performing for visitors throughout the day.
Mrs. Sarfati, who was called Elizabeth, died of cancer on April 2 in Chapel Hill, N.C. She was 87 and had been ill for two years.
She and her husband, Claude Sarfati, came to East Hampton in 1979. The couple had met in Manhattan, where he was a maitre d’ hotel and sommelier at the Yale Club and she was working for the investment firm Davis, Palmer & Biggs. They were married on April 4, 1977. They left the city and bought a restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard called the Seafood Shanty. They sold it after three years and bought the Huntting Inn in East Hampton and a house on Dayton Lane.
“I remember her saying that when they drove into East Hampton and she saw the pond with the swans she said, ‘Oh, I could live here,’ “ her stepdaughter Myriam Sarfati said.
After a year, they sold the inn and bought Cafe du Soir, a French restaurant in Manhattan. They kept the house in East Hampton and an apartment in New York, and eventually gave up the restaurant to live here full time. Her husband was a great cook and “they had wonderful dinner parties,” her stepdaughter recalled. “There would be loud opera music playing and he’d be cooking in the kitchen and everybody had a good time.”
“She was a lifelong reader. She remembered everything and she would quote these peculiar things or just burst out in song and dance,” her stepdaughter remembered. “She was kind. She was interesting to talk to, and she was interested in you. She wanted to know what you were doing.”
Along with working as a librarian, Mrs. Sarfati sang with the Choral Society of the Hamptons and volunteered with the Ladies Village Improvement Society and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. She sang with the East Hampton Presbyterian Church choir and performed with its handbell choir. She hosted bridge games at her house, played the ukulele, and wrote songs.
She and her husband enjoyed traveling. They had been to South America and Europe, including several trips to Normandy, and had taken cruises and traveled by train.
Helen Elizabeth Eblen was born in Perry, Ky., on April 10, 1937, to Mervin Kohl Eblen and the former Helen Dougall Cole. She grew up in Hazard, Ky., and earned a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Kentucky in 1959. Her first marriage, to Gordon Jones, ended in divorce.
Mr. Sarfati died in 2013. Mrs. Sarfati is survived by two stepdaughters, Myriam Sarfati of Forest Hills, Queens, and Jacqueline Sarfati of Martinez, Calif., and a stepson, Dominique Sarfati of Reston, Va., and Florida. She also leaves two grandchildren, Jason Sarfati of Gaithersburg, Md., and Alison Kalusin of Rockville, Md., one great-grandchild, and a niece, Laura Harden of Mebane, N.C.
Mrs. Sarfati was cremated and her ashes will be interred at Chevra Kadisha Cemetery in Sag Harbor, where a graveside ceremony will be held on May 28 at 11 a.m. The Rev. Jon Rodriguez will officiate.
Her family has suggested memorial contributions to ARF, online at arfhamptons.org.
