When she was a girl, Jane Lucy Otto and her family often made the trip from Englewood, N.J., to Montauk to camp at Hither Hills State Park. That experience sparked a lifelong love of the outdoors, her daughter, Linda Volk Bennett, said.
Later, the family built a house on Sammy’s Beach Road in East Hampton, with Ms. Otto and her brother, Robert, lending a hand as teenagers. They drove out to the house for summers, weekends, and holidays, and her parents, Edward George Otto and the former Lucy Alice Wilkening, eventually moved there full time.
Ms. Otto died on April 28 in Vineyard, Utah, where she had been living in recent years with her daughter. She was 85 and had dementia. A service was held on May 16 at Vineyard Springs Park Stake. She was cremated and her ashes spread off Sammy’s Beach, near the family house.
Ms. Otto was born on Dec. 27, 1940, in Englewood and grew up there, graduating from Dwight Morrow High School. In 1959, she married Kenneth James Volk, with whom she had two children. They lived in New Jersey and Mr. Volk worked for American Airlines in New York, but when the corporate headquarters moved to Texas, so did he and his family.
Ms. Otto worked in information technology support for the Marriott hotel corporation in Texas. The couple divorced in 1979.
Along with camping, Ms. Otto enjoyed hiking and photography. She continued to visit East Hampton and moved here around 2002 to take care of her mother in her final years. She remained until 2013, when she moved to The Villages in Florida. When she became ill, she moved to Utah, where she was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a grandson, John McGuire Bennett, also of Vineyard. A son, Donald James Volk, died in 2025. Her brother, Robert Edward Otto Jr., also died before her.
