Obituaries

Shirley Anne Lesko Weinstein Mole of Sag Harbor, a singer and aficionado of the Great American Songbook, died on March 25 in Fort Mill, S.C., of complications related to congestive heart failure. She was 81.

Ronnie L. Wyche, a former resident of Wainscott and Sag Harbor who was a corrections sergeant with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, died last Thursday at Quantum Rehabilitation and Nursing in Middle Island. He was 67 and had been ill with Covid-19 for two weeks.

Corey Jay Bennett, who grew up in Springs and attended East Hampton High School, died of a drug overdose on April 27 in Florence Township, N.J. He was 30, and his last known place of residence was Long Beach, Calif.

Cyril R. Fitzsimons, an Irish barkeep whose duneside roadhouse on the Napeague stretch lives on in memory as an emblem of carefree summers past — when the rum flowed and sunburned people sang along to the sweet pulse of a steel-pan band — died on April 24 from complications of Covid-19.

Cheryl Bedini, who had trained to be a lawyer but returned to her beloved Sag Harbor for good in 1993 to open the Java Nation coffee roastery on Main Street with her husband, Andres Bedini, died on April 22 at home of a heart attack. She was 55.     

Fifty of those who played with and against Kenny Weldon in Amagansett’s slow-pitch softball league during the course of almost half a century turned out at the Terry King ball field’s parking lot Saturday afternoon to wish him a fond, final farewell as Mr. Weldon’s daughters, Christine Indeglia and Melissa Wallace, played Carly Simon’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which had been his wish.     

Gene Friedman, who directed photography for television commercials and industrial films and made several short films about dance, including one featured in a recent Museum of Modern Art exhibition, died in his sleep at home in Wainscott on Saturday. He was 92. The cause was congestive heart failure.     

Joseph Francis DeDeyn, who lived for many years in group homes in East Hampton, died on April 19 of complications from the Covid-19 virus. He was 68.

Jessica Chew Martin, who grew up in Montauk, died on April 1 at home in Larkhall, Scotland, of complications from Covid-19. Ms. Martin’s father, Thomas Edward Chew, died when she was a baby. She was raised by her mother, Deborah Burdick Chew Coen, and stepfather, Brian Coen. An obituary will appear in a future issue of The Star.

Mary Elizabeth Falborn, a ninth-generation descendant of one of East Hampton’s early families, the Fields, died of complications of cancer treatment on April 20 at Vitas Inpatient Hospice in Rockledge, Fla. The Sag Harbor resident, formerly of East Hampton, was 93 and had been ill for eight months.     

Walter A. Nelson Jr., who grew up on Lake Montauk and founded Montauk Aquaculture Development, died of a brief illness on April 6 at the Bronx home of his daughter Karin O’Connor. He was 82.

Geraldine S. Wasko Doyle, who was a guide at the World’s Fair in Queens and later was the owner-operator of a restaurant and catering businesses, died of Covid-19 on April 24 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. The longtime East Hampton resident, who had lived at the nursing home for about a year, was 86 years old and had been ill for two days.