Mary Bennett Petersen, who grew up between New York City and her grandparents’ house in East Hampton, died on Dec. 31 after a long illness. She was 88.
According to her family, Mrs. Bennett Petersen was the last surviving Bennett of 10 generations of descendants of Samuel Bennett, who arrived from England with Lion Gardiner in 1639 and lived on Gardiner’s Island before moving to East Hampton.
Those grandparents, Robina and William Watson Bennett, called their East Hampton property Camp Maycrost. Dr. Bennett had been a staff veterinarian for the Barnum and Bailey Circus before establishing a practice on Montauk Highway. He taught his granddaughter to ride horses and instilled in her a love of animals, especially dachshunds.
Mrs. Bennett Petersen was proud of her heritage and used her maiden name, Bennett, in place of her middle name when she married, well before it was fashionable. Her ancestors had served in the Civil War and Revolutionary War, and she was the great-grandniece of Capt. Lewis Bennett and Capt. Samuel Bennett of Shelter Island.
Mary Bennett was born in New York City on April 18, 1937, the only child of William Johnston Bennett and the former Edna Musa. She attended Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn, where she was captain of the cheerleading squad, and went on to Washington Secretarial School.
She met her future husband, Harold Arthur Petersen, who went by Pete, while still in high school, “and said she knew it was true love after her dog ran away to chase a squirrel. Pete volunteered to help her find it and hours later he did,” her family wrote. They were married on Nov. 23, 1957.
After honeymooning in California, they settled in Syosset, where they raised two sons. Mrs. Bennett Petersen was a Dodgers fan; her husband a Giants fan. They later settled on supporting the Mets. When her boys were in high school, she went to work as a secretary for the Community Church of Syosset, where she would work for the next 40 years.
The Petersens bought a small cottage on Shelter Island in 1982, and had planned to build a larger house to retire to, but that changed when Mr. Petersen died in 1984. “Mary managed her mourning by pouring herself into her work, organizing countless missions for individuals and the community at large,” her family wrote. “She found happiness with her grandchildren and bringing friends to Shelter Island. Summer vacations she attended the Presbyterian church and enjoyed Pastor Bill Grimbol’s mission.” She continued to split her time between Shelter Island and Syosset.
Her work at the church in Syosset allowed her to be close to her grandchildren and drive them to their many activities. After a stroke in 2016, she was wheelchair-bound but continued to make calls and send cards to “celebrate and inspire others.”
She is survived by her sons and their wives, Bill and Anna Maria Petersen of Philadelphia and Doug and Ann Petersen of New York City, and by her grandchildren, Lauren Elizabeth Wondsel, Christian Douglas Petersen, Keegan Bennett Petersen, Cameron Erik Petersen, and Matthew Bennett Petersen. She leaves three great-grandchildren, Henry, Emerson, and Louise Wondsel.
A memorial service is to be held on Jan. 24 at 11 a.m. at the Community Church of Syosset. Donations in her memory have been suggested to Emmy Lights the Way, which provides adaptive equipment for children with cerebral palsy, at emmylightstheway.org.
