Sunny: Busy and Social

At age 81, Sonya “Sunny” Bates was named Suffolk County Senior of the Year — and that was a whole 10 years ago.

A decade later, the Hampton Bays resident’s radiant smile still shines, her lip color perfectly applied. Clad in a stylish, patterned blue top, with azure earrings to match beneath elfin cropped white hair, she defies the cultural stereotype of an “old woman.” Petite and posture-perfect at 91, she glides through the great room at the Hampton Bays Community Center a bit regally.

The royal comparison is apt. According to Senior Center Recreation and Program Director Heather Smith, Sunny is “the queen” of the center.

A 40-year resident of the hamlet, Sunny honed her personality as a people person while growing up — she earned her nickname in high school — and working at her parents’ deli in Queens, followed by a bar and grill later owned by her husband, Robert, in Richmond Hill.

“I knew how to talk to people,” Sunny said. Her sister worked in the deli, too, but stayed in the kitchen, cooking. “She was the introvert and I was the extrovert,” she observed.

Nowadays, she’s a fixture at the senior center. “I get up every morning and pick up my friends and do my thing,” she said.

Make that a lot of things.

At the center, she’ll play cards or other group games after coffee with friends. She’s there for lunch and usually doesn’t leave the Ponquogue Avenue site until around 3:30 p.m.

Asked what she does once she gets home, Sunny quipped, “I take a nap!”

Evenings are for knitting prayer shawls, which she donates to a local church, as well as reading, or going back out to play bingo. For over 20 years, she was the caller for the game in the Riverhead Moose Lodge.

Although Heather calls Sunny the queen of the center, Sunny counters, “I should be the greeter.”

And greet she does.

“We’ve got 10 tables here,” she said. “I can go to each table and I know their names, and I keep talking to them. I try to make them feel comfortable. Some people have said, if it wasn’t for me welcoming them the way I did, they wouldn’t have come. So, I feel good about that.”

Right around the same time that Suffolk County honored her, Sunny started working in the center’s thrift shop, accepting donated clothes, knickknacks and household items. She sets up the space and sells the goods, the proceeds of which benefit senior programming. “I make a lot of money — I try,” she said.

“She’s a hustler,” Heather said, as Sunny burst into a merry laugh that comes easily and often.

“The way I see Sunny, she has the best outlook,” Heather added.

Always first to sign up for field trips, Sunny stayed engaged when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the center’s shutdown. Staff crafted food packages for area seniors, and Sunny would assemble puzzles included with the meals.

“When my husband passed away, that’s when I came in here, 15 years ago,” Sunny explained. “I enjoy it. I come here every day, except when I go on my cruises,” noting that, this summer, she’s going to Iceland.

The definition of a bundle of energy, Sunny is somewhat reluctant to discuss her attributes and life themes, what keeps her so vital and vibrant. After 20 minutes, she ground the interview to a halt, laughing again.

“Okay. That’s enough,” she said.

Her coffee’s getting cold.

Her friends are waiting.

Sunny’s got to go.

She has things to do.