Lifelong Montauk resident Edna G. Biase dies at 90

Lifelong Montauk resident Edna G. Biase died on September 22 at her home. An avid volunteer and lover of the Montauk community, she was 90.

Born October 25, 1918, in Brooklyn to Oscar George Sorensen and Anna Gross, she moved with her family when she was a child to a small house in Montauk’s old fishing village. Her father was a carpenter, and in 1926 found work with the Carl Fisher organization during that firm’s development of Montauk into a vacation resort.

The oldest of six children, she attended Montauk Public School and East Hampton High School. She loved swimming in Fort Pond Bay—she would hang on to a boat as it pulled her out into the harbor, and then let go and swim to shore. She also loved roaming the nearly bare hills of Montauk and would walk miles to Oyster Pond and Culloden.

After graduating from high school she moved to New York City and worked at Grant’s Department Store. She married childhood friend Malcolm Neil Macdonald in 1942 and the couple had a daughter, Carol. After the family had relocated to South Carolina and Kentucky, the marriage ended in divorce.

She returned to live in East Hampton where she worked for the East Hampton Star from 1948 to 1949. She then moved to Montauk where she married local serviceman William Biase in 1950; they had two children, Christine and William II. In Montauk she continued working for the East Hampton Star as the Montauk reporter and also manned the information desk at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Biase was an active volunteer throughout the Montauk community. She volunteered with the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Cub Scouts, and the Montauk Parent Teacher Association. She was also secretary of the Montauk Historical Society and a member of the Archive Committee at the Montauk Library.

She was very active in the Order of the Eastern Star and in the Montauk Community Church, where she served over the years as Sunday school teacher, deacon, and as head of the fellowship group. Many in the community remember the wonderful baked goods she contributed to local bake sales.

An avid reader and an amateur astronomer, she was very interested in the history of Montauk. She also loved taking walks over many of Montauk’s trails and in the summer and fall would pick the wild berries that grew in the hills to make jams and jellies. She had a deep and personal love for Montauk and to the end of her days believed that she lived in the best place on Earth, survivors said.

“My mother’s love of nature and of Montauk was something she passed on to me,” her daughter Carol Nye said this week. “She was an environmentalist before it was fashionable,”

She is survived by her husband of nearly 60 years, William Biase of Montauk; a daughter, Carol Macdonald Nye of Montauk; a son, William Biase II of Alabama; two sisters, Edith Pavlikowski of Copiague and Anne Stein of North Dakota; two brothers, Frank Sorensen of Maryland and Robert Sorensen of Massachusetts; and a granddaughter, Meg Nye. A daughter, Christine Bussichio, and a brother, George Sorensen, predeceased her.

Visitation was on September 25 at the Yardley & Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral mass was held on September 26 at the Montauk Community Church in Montauk, followed by interment at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Montauk Community Church, P.O. Box 698, Montauk, NY 11954 would be appreciated by the family.