Obituaries

    Richard D. Lyons, whose connection to the South Fork began with his interest in the woman he was to marry, Susan Pilchik Rosenbaum, died on March 13 at their home in Charleston, S.C. He was 84 and suffered from vascular dementia.

    Mr. Lyons was a reporter for The New York Times for nearly 30 years, writing some 3,000 articles on science, medicine, and psychology, among other subjects, as well as metropolitan and United Nations news. Covering the United States space program, he was The Times’s reporter on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

    Ann Duryea Kirk Willard, the eldest daughter of a surgeon general of the United States Army who worked as a summertime physician in Montauk in the 1950s, died on Feb. 16 in Bedford, Mass. She was 93.

    She was born on Aug. 28, 1919, in Colonia, N.J., to Anne Duryea Kirk and Maj. Gen. Norman T. Kirk. Described by her family as an “Army brat,” she grew up in Washington, D.C., Texas, and the Philippine Islands. Moving often as a child instilled in her a lifelong love of travel.

    Carol Braider, who with her husband ran a shop in East Hampton in the 1950s called the House of Music and Books and an art gallery that showed work by artists such as Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and Franz Kline, died on March 16 of heart failure at home in Red Hook, N.Y. She was 87.

    A Mass for the Rev. Ronald Ciaravolo, a former pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk and a Sunday priest for many years at St. Peter’s in Amagansett, will be said in the Montauk church in which he served today at 11 a.m. Father Ron, as he was known, lived in Montauk. He died on Monday. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Elfriede Field, whose first job after emigrating from Germany in 1954 was assembling watches at the Bulova factory in Sag Harbor, died at home in East Hampton on Friday of complications of heart disease. She was 80.

    Mrs. Field met and married Russell Field of East Hampton shortly after the end of the war in Germany, where he was stationed as an Army policeman.

    Elizabeth Elting Rogers, a pianist and jazz aficionado who was known on the South Fork as a person of grace and generosity, died on March 7 at home in Bridgehampton. Her death was caused by a brain aneurism, her family said. She was 76.

    A funeral Mass for Gerald E. McCarthy, 76, of Oak Road, Noyac, who died on Saturday at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson, will be today at noon at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton. Burial will be at St. Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery in Sag Harbor. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Gloria Joan Rousell of Montauk, a nurse for nearly four decades, died at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton on March 10 of congestive heart failure. She was 90.

    Born on Jan. 14, 1923, in New York City to Anthony Wescott and the former Lela Pettir, she was raised in Corona and Jackson Heights, Queens, where she attended William Cullen Bryant High School. After her graduation from St. Catherine’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1952, she lived in New York City and attended St. John’s University, where she received a B.S. in Nursing in 1955.

    She could have remained forever known as Richard Burton’s first wife, thrown over for Elizabeth Taylor after a slew of other affairs, but Sybil Williams Burton Christopher was not satisfied being a footnote in someone else’s biography.

    “I’m not famous,” she told The Star in 1994, “I’m notorious.” But she was resolute in not wanting “to talk about that nonsense” surrounding her first marriage, which lasted 14 years, despite the affairs.

    Thomas P. Peacock, a former assistant general counsel for the City of New York who chaired the successful capital campaign to restore and expand the Amagansett Library in 2004, died of prostate cancer on March 9 in Islamorada, Fla. He was 79.

    Mr. Peacock was a partner at Winthrop Stimson Putnam and Roberts and a founding partner at the law firm now known as Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel, both based in New York City. Besides serving as an assistant general counsel for New York City, he was a general counsel for the group of financial companies known as MONY.

Visiting hours for the Rev. Ronald Ciaravolo, the former pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk and a Sunday priest for many years at St. Peter's in Amagansett, who died Monday will be Wednesday at St. Therese from 5 to 7:45 p.m. with a Mass to follow at 8 p.m.

Another Mass for him will be said in the Montauk church in which he served at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

Father Ron, as he was known to many, lived in Montauk.

    Edward John Golden, who was called Skip and spent the first half of his life in Montauk, died on Feb. 27 following a seizure. He was 48.

    Mr. Golden had been a resident of the Association for Help of Retarded Children’s intermediate care facility in Shoreham for the last 24 years.

    Born in Flushing on Aug. 10, 1964, he was the son of Edward Golden and the former Margaret Burke, now Margaret Lachman. His father died in 1969.

    He is survived by his mother, a native of Montauk, and his stepfather, Robert Lachman, who live in Montauk and in Florida.

    Ernest Leroy Thomsen, a former East Hampton Town policeman who retired as a sergeant in 1974, died at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead on Feb. 20, from complications from diabetes and a heart attack. He was 84 and had been sick for a couple of months.

    Known as Roy, he was born in Queens to Ernest Thomsen and the former Jessie Bachelor on May 30, 1928. He grew up in Queens.

    Visiting hours for Gloria Rousell, 90, of Montauk, who died Sunday at Southampton Hospital, will be tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral Mass for her will be said at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk at 10 a.m. Saturday. Burial will be at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.

    The Rousell family has suggested memorial donations to St. Therese of Lisieux, Box 5027, Montauk 11954; the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, Box 901, Wainscott 11975, or the Montauk Fire Department, 12 Flamingo Avenue, Montauk.

    Hathaway Martin Barry, 62, a lifelong resident of North Haven and Sag Harbor who was known as Hap, died at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton on March 3. Mr. Barry, who had had heart problems, was said to have lived an uncomplicated life, employed mostly at the Baron’s Cove Inn, which was owned and operated by his uncle and his father.

    Margaret Moffat Young, an East Hampton real estate agent who served as a nurse’s aide during World War II, died on Jan. 27 in Lancaster, Pa. She was 88 and had Alzheimer’s disease.

    She was born on Sept. 18, 1924, to John Gilchrist Moffat and the former Jane Scull. She attended the Knox School in Scranton, Pa., and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She married John Dowdney in 1947. They lived in New York and summered in East Hampton.

    A wake will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. for Mary Dunne of Amagansett, who died on Sunday at the age of 94. A funeral Mass will be said on Friday, March 22, at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Rose M. Swanson of East Hampton, who worked as a waitress at such restaurants as John Duck’s and Balzarini’s in Southampton, died in Southampton on Feb. 26 at the age of 87.

    Ms. Swanson was born in Packerton, Pa., to Peter and Sophie Dzuba Sitarchyk on Dec. 10, 1925, one of nine children. After graduation from Lehighton High School, she moved to Southampton and soon met her husband to be, Francis X. Swanson. The couple married on Oct. 21, 1946, and had two daughters, Patricia Cartino of Sag Harbor and Kathleen Coleman of Ridge. They survive her. Her husband died in 1999.

    Stanley Snadowsky, a co-founder of the Bottom Line nightclub in New York’s Greenwich Village and longtime music business impresario, died on Feb. 25 in Las Vegas of diabetic complications. He was 70 and had been ill for 11 months.

    Mr. Snadowsky, who had a house on Spread Oak Lane in East Hampton for many years, died holding the hands of his wife and two daughters, “Bat Out of Hell,” a favorite album by Meatloaf, playing continuously, said his family.

    Word has reached The Star of the death of Stefon Marcel Johnson of Portsmouth, Va., a childhood resident of Bridgehampton, who died on March 1 at the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. Mr. Johnson, who was 22, was born with sickle cell anemia, an inherited disease caused by an abnormal protein inside red blood cells.

    Craig C. Morton, a Montauker who had lived in Rincon, Puerto Rico, for the past 15 years, died on Friday in Rincon after a brief illness. He was 49.

    Mr. Morton was an electrician and helped a lot of people in Rincon, according to his brother, Chuck Morton of Montauk.

    John Peter Macca, a former sales manager for the Texaco oil company who was a summer resident of Amagansett for several decades, died on Feb. 27 at Treasure Coast Hospice in Florida following a stroke. He was 83.

    Mr. Macca was born on July 8, 1929, in New York City to Peter Samuel Macca and the former Rosana Muraca. As a young man, he served in the Army during the Korean War. He later earned a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University in Hempstead.

    Richard T. Johnson, who was among the founders of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, died at San Simeon by the Sound in Greenport on Feb. 21. He was 87. The cause of death was cancer, his niece, Frances Walton, said.

    Mr. Johnson was a person of many interests. He worked for Chrysler in Latin America and South America, and on the side wrote plays. His co-written script for the comedy “All the Girls Came Out to Play” had a three-day run on Broadway before closing in 1972 but continues to be performed by theater companies around the world.

    Ruth Hedges Guyer, an early education teacher who, her family said, felt blessed to work with children, died at home in Bridgehampton of cancer on Feb. 26. She was 71.

    Samuel Jacob Spielberg, who loved his hometown of East Hampton and was raising his own daughter here, died on Feb. 22 following a single car accident in Amagansett. He was 31.

    Hundreds filled Ashawagh Hall in Springs and gathered on the lawn outside during a celebration of his life on Feb. 28.

    Mr. Spielberg was dedicated to his family and to his friends, both lifelong and new, and they spoke last week of his generous and caring nature.

    Family and close friends of Stefon M. Johnson, 23, of Portsmouth, Va., will gather on Monday for a graveside service in Chesapeake, Va. Mr. Johnson, who lived in Bridgehampton as a child, died on Friday at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. He had sickle-cell anemia.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Toni Botta, who lived in Montauk for more than 30 years, died of cancer on Feb. 20 in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 61 and had been ill for eight months.

    Ms. Botta, known as Rusty, worked at the Montauk Marine Basin and the Montauk Medical Center, before retiring and moving to Lehigh Acres, Fla., with her husband, Anthony Botta, about 15 years ago. 

    Norman Taylor Harrington II, a former English professor at Brooklyn College, died of cancer last Thursday at home in Manhattan. He was 86 and had been ill for 18 months.

    A part-time resident of Amagansett, he loved Fresh Pond, Louse Point, reading in the Amagansett Library, visiting the proprietor of Amagansett Hardware, having clams at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, and conferring with his favorite plumber, Phil Gamble, his family said.

    Caroline Valenta, a trail-blazing newspaper photographer and Pulitzer-prize nominee, who had lived on Suffolk Street in Sag Harbor for more than a decade, died on Feb. 20 at the Westhampton Care Center. She was 88 and had pancreatic cancer for three years.

    Edward M. Evans, who served on a Congressional committee as the chief investigator in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, died on Friday at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was 81 and had retired to his Harbor Avenue, Sag Harbor, house some years ago. His death followed a period of illness, his family said.