Obituaries

George Tilghman, who was known as Fletcher and had owned his own upholstery business, Fletcher’s Interiors, in East Hampton, died on Aug. 4 at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., after a lengthy illness. He was 75 and had experienced complications from diabetes, according to his wife, Judy Tilghman.

Irvin Choron, who was “bitten by the Montauk bug when he caught a record-breaking striper off the beach at Atlantic Terrace in the 1960s,” died on Aug. 31 at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Conn. He was 86 and had been ill with pneumonia for a week.

Mr. Choron lived in Rye, N.Y., and had a second home on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk starting in the 1970s, “spending as much time there with his wife and family as possible, casting into the surf on the Hither Hills beaches,” his family said.

Joan A. Schellinger was many things — a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a volunteer — and will be remembered as a woman who cared deeply about her family, letting them know they were at the center of her life, they said.

A native of Bridgehampton who lived in Springs for many years, Mrs. Schellinger died on Aug. 30 at Southampton Hospital, surrounded by her family. She was 78 and had cancer.

Linda Sylvia Baker, who grew up in Montauk, died on Friday at her home in Cutchogue at the age of 55. She had suffered from back problems and diabetes, said her husband, Paul W. Baker.

Ms. Baker was an artist who created pencil drawings depicting nature scenes. She loved the water, particularly the ocean, her husband said, having grown up near it. Her family moved from Glen Cove to their Leisurama summer home when she was a teen, and she graduated from East Hampton High School in 1978. One of her first jobs was in the ticket booth for Montauk’s Viking Fleet.

Margaret Myers, who moved year-round to Maidstone Park in East Hampton about 30 years ago, died at her house on Mudford Avenue on Friday. She was 92 and had been in poor health for some time, her family said.

Much of Mrs. Myers’s life was focused around family and friends. Cooking for and entertaining guests were her joy. Coming from an Italian-American family in Queens, she never needed a cookbook to produce lasagna and other dishes, almost without effort. “She was hospitable; everyone was welcome,” said her daughter, Edna Myers of Mastic Beach.

Martha J. Wolford of Springs was found dead on Aug. 29 at her home on Old Stone Highway. According to her only survivor, a niece who came to East Hampton with her husband this week to settle her affairs, she had been dead for some time, possibly weeks, when police went to the house. A gardener had reported not seeing her for a while.

Mia Bella Zingarelli, the daughter of Noah Zingarelli and Francesca Buffo, died on Sept. 1 at Boston Children’s Hospital, “in her mother’s arms, her favorite place in the world,” her family wrote. She was 7.

Mia Bella was born with a rare metabolic disorder, pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency, at Stony Brook University Hospital on Feb. 10, 2007. She spent the first two months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit there before being transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital, where she was cared for by Dr. Gerard Berry, head of the pediatric metabolism program.

A celebration-of-life gathering will be held at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Barbara Osborn Babinski Meyer, a lifelong Wainscott resident who died at home on Sunday. She was 89. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Benjamin A. Havens, 69, a Springs bayman with fisherman forebears back to the 19th century, died at Northport Veterans Hospital on Saturday after a short illness. He was diagnosed with a progressive form of cancer less than two weeks ago.

A celebration of the life of the late David Carney was held at the Bridgehampton Senior Center last Thursday. A former United Nations economist who retired to Sag Harbor in 1985, Dr. Carney died in Southampton on May 8.

Dr. Carney, who arrived in this county from Sierra Leone in 1953 for a professorship at Lincoln University, earned five degrees between 1945 and 1952. Earlier in life he had been a high school teacher, a high school headmaster in Ghana, and a statistician for the Nigerian government.

Visiting hours for Carl Darenberg Jr., who died on Sunday in Montauk, will be today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

His funeral will be tomorrow at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk at 10 a.m.; the Rev. Bill Hoffmann of the Montauk Community Church will officiate. Burial will be at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

A funeral for Harold R. Simmons Jr. will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton on Sunday at 3 p.m., with the Rev Denis Brunelle officiating. Mr. Simmons died at home in East Hampton on Aug. 12. He was 74. An obituary for him that appeared in last Thursday’s issue incorrectly listed the date of his funeral.

James D. Griffin, who built a house in Montauk in 1984, died last Thursday at Southampton Hospital. He suffered a fatal heart attack after a morning of fishing while heading back into Montauk Harbor, his family said.

A celebration of the life of David Carney, a former United Nations economist, educator, and author who worked extensively in Africa and the West Indies before retiring to Sag Harbor in 1985, will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Bridgehampton Senior Center.

Harold Ralston Simmons Jr., an internationally noted interior designer, died at home in East Hampton on Aug. 12.

Marianne Toy of Sag Harbor Village, whose smile was the first thing people noticed about her, her family said, died on Aug. 5 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Patricia A. Reilly Dunn, who lived on Newtown Lane in East Hampton for 50 years and in that time managed the Sea Spray Inn and worked as a real estate broker at the Windward and Devlin McNiff agencies, died on Aug. 13 at home in Ridge after a brief illness.

Rena Hewie Stoutt, who owned Jamaica Specialties on North Main Street in East Hampton, died at Stony Brook University Hospital on Aug. 12, surrounded by family.

Vera Lens Holden, a Montauk resident for over 40 years and one of the first occupants of a Leisurama house in Culloden Shores, died on Aug. 13 in Farmington, Conn.

Walter Galcik Sr., a World War II veteran who was the caretaker of Shadmoor State Park as part of his work for the Town of East Hampton, died at home in Ditch Plain, Montauk, last Thursday.

Dominick Puglisi took a long and varied path to realizing his life’s dream but when he made it a reality by opening an Italian restaurant, he met with unexpected, though not entirely unforeseeable, success.

A childhood in the kitchens of his Sicilian grandmother and mother left him with a love of food and a sense of how cooking and sharing a meal can create true bonds among people. But it was not until he and his wife had built what they thought would be their retirement house in Arizona that it would come together at last.

Ellen Emma Dracker, who lived in East Hampton for 67 of her 88 years, died on Saturday at Southampton Hospital. She had suffered a broken femur and a series of strokes in May.

Mrs. Dracker was fun-loving and family-oriented, her children wrote, always welcoming guests with her latest home-baked treat, as warmly as if they were members of the family. Among her specialties were brownies, sour cream twists, and stollen, a traditional German cake.

Ernestine Lassaw of Springs died at Southampton Hospital on Friday. She was 101. A memorial will be announced for a date in the fall. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Felice Lupo, who established Astro Pizza in Amagansett in the early ’70s, naming it to commemorate the space explorations of the time, died at home on Aug. 8 in Baltimore, where he had lived for several years. He was 88. He had not been ill, his family said, and died peacefully in his sleep.

Mr. Lupo was a familiar figure in Amagansett, where his children still run the pizza place and restaurant on Main Street.

Visiting hours for Vera Lens Holden, who lived in Montauk for many years, will be held tomorrow from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Carmon Funeral Home and Family Center in Avon, Conn. Mrs. Holden died on Aug. 13 in Farmington, Conn., after a short illness. A service will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Valley Community Baptist Church in Avon, Conn., with the Rev. Jay Abramson officiating. Mrs. Holden was 96.

An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Geraldine G. Webb, whose life was devoted to her family, her church, and traveling the nation’s roads and waterways with her husband, Richard F. Webb, who survives her, died at home in Punta Gorda, Fla., on July 14. She was 82 and had been ill for the past few years, her family said.

John Sadowsky Jr., who at one time managed East Hampton Bowl, died on Aug. 6 at home in Onancock, Va. He was 75. The cause of death was liver disease, his family said.

Mr. Sadowsky was born on Dec. 18, 1938, at Southampton Hospital, to John Paul Sadowsky and the former Antonia Wazlo. He grew up in East Hampton, graduating from East Hampton High School.

He was in the United States Navy for two years, stationed in Virginia. He then worked for Grumman Aircraft before becoming the manager of the East Hampton bowling lanes.

Nancy Ann Lazar had faced cancer with such grace over the past four years that her family tried to convince her to write a book titled “Top 10 Ways to Look Hot While You Have Cancer” to share what they called “her recipe for success.”

Her secrets: “Get your hair done, dress fashionably, walk three miles every day, always have a pedicure, go to China because you want to, dance on New Year’s, spend every Thursday night on the beach with friends, and wake up every morning to say to yourself in the mirror, ‘You’re beautiful. I love you.’ ”

Raymond J. McCarthy, a cabinet and furniture maker who lived in Montauk and Sag Harbor for more than 30 years, died of kidney failure related to prostate cancer complications on Saturday at Hyder Family Hospice House in Dover, N.H. He was 67 and lived in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Rena Hewie Stoutt, who owned Jamaica Specialties on North Main Street in East Hampton, died at Stony Brook University Hospital on Aug. 12, two days after her 64th birthday. A wake was held on Tuesday at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton and a funeral was held yesterday at Calvary Baptist Church, also in East Hampton. Burial was at Cedar Lawn Cemetery on Cooper Lane. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.