Obituaries

    Jeffrey Brackett Potter died at Southampton Hospital on Saturday after a brief case of pneumonia. He was 94. A resident of East Hampton, he was the author of several books, including an oral biography of Jackson Pollock, “To a Violent Grave,” which was published in 1985. He also wrote two works of children’s fiction that were published by Viking Press, “Elephant Bridge” and “Robin is a Bear.” At one time, he ran a marine construction company here, East Hampton Dredge and Dock, whose motto was “Your Bottom is Our Business.” 

    John R. Talmage, who grew up in East Hampton and the Bronx, died on Dec. 5 in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, following an aneurism. He was 74.

    Mr. Talmage was born in New York City on Feb. 2, 1938. Raised in East Hampton by his mother, the former Ruth Thinnes, and his stepfather, Donald Gould, he graduated from East Hampton High School with the class of 1955 and went on to Pace College and Rutgers University, eventually becoming a certified public accountant.

    Leonard B. Harmon, a retired insurance company owner  and championship bridge player who lived on Jason’s Lane in East Hampton and who was awarded the Purple Heart for an eye injury during World War II, died at home on Nov. 27. The cause was heart failure and stroke, his family said. He was 93.

    Miriam Brooks, known as Mim, died on Dec. 12, two days shy of her 94th birthday. She had moved from East Hampton to Binghamton, N.Y., in 2008, and lived most recently in Elizabeth Church Manor, a nursing home there.

    Born in Trenton, N.J., in 1918, the daughter of Marion and Bertram Thompson, she graduated from Trenton High School and went to work as a telephone switchboard operator.

   Anne M. Black Koehler of East Hampton, a maternity nurse at Southampton Hospital for 24 years, died on Nov. 24 at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn of complications following heart surgery. She was 78.

    Many people who recognized her from the hospital would stop her on the street or in a store to introduce her to their children whom she had helped deliver, her family said. “People always told us what a special nurse she was to them.”

    Daniel Varuolo of North Haven, an usher at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor who worked at his nephew’s Emporium Hardware in Sag Harbor, died at home on Monday. He was 88 and had been an active member of the Knights of Columbus and the American Legion’s Chelberg and Battle Post 388 in Sag Harbor.

    With his wife, Rosetta, Mr. Varuolo moved to North Haven in 1985 and built a retirement house on Cove’s End Lane. Mrs. Varuolo survives.

   Juana M. Bahamondes of Queens Lane in East Hampton died on Tuesday at the age of 78.

    Visiting hours will be today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a funeral Mass scheduled for tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery on Cedar Street. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Leon Jaroff was a man who did not suffer fools gladly. A senior editor at Time magazine, in charge at different times of its science, medicine, environment, and behavior sections, he wrote some 44 Time cover stories and a column for the magazine called “Skeptic Eye.” He was 85 when he died at his Further Lane, East Hampton, residence on Oct. 20, having been in declining health for some time. A memorial gathering was held at the Time-Life Building in Rockefeller Center on Nov. 29.

    Louise Wilson, who had worked as a housekeeper for many prominent East Hampton families since coming here from Walterboro, S.C., in 1956, died on Saturday at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead. She was 74 and had been ill with lung cancer for a year.

    A missionary at Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, she sang in the church choir there and never missed a year working on the church’s annual barbecue benefit. Until recent years, she was also a familiar face at the polling place in Springs, where she worked as an election inspector.

    Timothy Allen Smith, a 27-year member of the Springs Fire Department whom friends called Chick, died on Nov. 30 of a heart-related illness. He was 51.

    His friends said he was “a born, bred Bonacker.” A lifelong resident of East Hampton and graduate of East Hampton High School, Mr. Smith was a carpenter who enjoyed boating, fishing, clamming, and watching Nascar races.

    Beatrice Lorraine Terry Strong, who lived in Wainscott for many years with her husband, Douglas Pierson Strong, and raised a family there, died on Tuesday in Albemarle, N.C., where she had lived for several years. She was 85 and had Alzheimer’s disease, her family said.

    As a New York Telephone Company switchboard operator, Ms. Strong’s voice would have been familiar to several generations of South Fork residents. Later in her working life, she was the switchboard operator at Southampton Hospital.

    Dr. Elaine Tuccillo, 66, a clinical psychologist, died at her Hither Hills residence on Nov. 16 of lung cancer. She had been diagnosed with the disease in June.

    Though she smoked cigarettes as a young woman, her husband, Dr. Scott Baum, said they were stunned at the diagnosis. “She was a strong, healthy person,” he said.

    Joseph Holmes of East Hampton, a familiar face from 27 years of service at the East Hampton Post Office, died of lung cancer at Southampton Hospital on Nov. 27. He was 74.

    Lisa de Kooning, the only child of the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning and an artist in her own right, died on Nov. 23 at a family home on the island of St. John in the Virgin Islands, reportedly from injuries after a fall. She was 56.

    Christopher Thomas Stamp, who discovered and co-managed the Who for 10 years, founded the independent Track Records label, and called East Hampton home for 23 years, died on Saturday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. He was 70 and had cancer for the past year.

    Donald Schellinger, a Sag Harbor carpenter who was known as Dode, died on Tuesday at Southampton Hospital. He was 70 years old and had lung cancer.

    Mr. Schellinger worked over the years as a carpenter for several local businesses. He was a longtime member of the Sag Harbor Fire Department.

    A father and grandfather, Mr. Schellinger was married to the former Judith Warner, who died 10 years ago.

    Elaine Tuccillo, 66, died at home in Montauk on Nov. 16. She will be buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in that hamlet on Saturday at 1 p.m. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Visiting hours for Ellen Menaik Cox of Sag Harbor, who died at Southampton Hospital on Sunday, will be held tonight from 7 to 9 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. Ms. Cox was 86. A service will be held at the funeral home tomorrow at 11 a.m. Burial will follow at Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Visiting hours for Emilio Pidilla Berrezueta, 18, a student at Southampton High School, who died on Monday in Montauk, will be tonight from 5 to 9   at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

    A funeral Mass will be said tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Eric Louis Rooney, who spent childhood summers in Montauk and for whom it remained a favorite place, was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery there on Nov. 21. Mr. Rooney died in Queens on Nov. 17. The cause of death was an accident, his family said. He was 26.

    Mr. Rooney was born on Sept. 16, 1986, to Bruna DiBiase and Richard Rooney in New York City. He grew up  in Flushing, Queens, and on Butternut Drive in Montauk.

   An 18-year-old East Hampton woman had two car accidents in four days last week, both of them involving deer. Ashley Silvertsen was driving a 1995 Jeep on the afternoon of Nov. 20 on Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road in Springs when she thought she saw a deer on the road ahead. She swerved and went off the side of the road, coming to a stop in some shrubbery. The Jeep was towed away with damage to the undercarriage.

    James Bernard Leonard, a former newspaper pressman, died on Thanksgiving Day in a hospital in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 91 and had gone to Florida to visit a son.

    Mr. Leonard’s career in newspapers included a stint as a flyboy, a pressroom apprentice who literally caught stacks of papers as they flew off the presses. He went on to become a pressman for The New York Journal-American, The New York Times, and The Daily News, working for that paper in Long Island City until he retired.

    Visiting hours for Joseph Holmes of Oakview Highway, East Hampton, who died on Tuesday at the age of 70, will be at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m.

    A funeral for him will be Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the Yardley and Pino. Burial will follow at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

    Johanna Liesbeth de Kooning of Springs and St. John in the United States Virgin Islands died on Friday while at home on St. John. Ms. de Kooning, who was known as Lisa, was the daughter of the Abstract Expressionist artist Willem de Kooning. She was 56. No services have been announced. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    An obituary in last week’s paper for William W. Talmage, who died on Nov. 13, gave the street address but not the mailing address for one organization to which his family has suggested memorial contributions. The mailing address for American Legion Post 419 is P.O. Box 1343, East Hampton 11937. His family also suggested donations to the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, 40 West 20th Street, New York City 10011-4211.

    Ray D. Lingwood, a civic-minded member of the Bridgehampton-Water Mill community and founder of the Bridgehampton I.G.A., died on Thanksgiving Day at home in Water Mill. He was three days shy of his 91st birthday.

    Mr. Lingwood was a World War II veteran, a sergeant in the Army Air Corps in charge of a photographic unit in the Pacific theater. He served from August 1942 to the end of the war.

    Tamara Clement Gianis, a sculptor who worked in marble and alabaster, died at her house in East Hampton on Oct. 22. She was 83, and had suffered from pneumonia.

    Ms. Gianis, who was born in New York City on Nov. 2, 1928, began visiting East Hampton as a child, when her family had a house on Jericho Road.

    A memorial service celebrating the life of Elizabeth Fondaras will be held next Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. James’ Episcopal Church, 865 Madison Avenue, in Manhattan. Ms. Fondaras died on Aug. 29 in New York City. She was 96.

    Isabel Theresa Winsch, who worked for the Suffolk County police for 35 years and before that, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while raising seven children, died at home in East Hampton on Sunday. She was 87.

    Ms. Winsch became a clerk at the F.B.I.’s field office in New York City, where she met her future husband, Lawrence A. Winsch, who was a photographer and bureau agent. The couple married on Jan. 25, 1947. Mr. Winsch died in 1994.

    William W. Talmage, who served under Gen. George Patton in the Third Army during World War II and lived in East Hampton for most of his life, died on Nov. 13 at Brookhaven Hospital in Patchogue. He was 89.