Winnie Denton, 101, Dies

Except for the last year of her life when she was in a nursing home, Winifred Petty Denton, 101, lived her entire life on Old Stone Highway in Springs. Ms. Denton died Wednesday, November 24, at Peconic Bay Skilled Nursing Center in Riverhead. Her last house on Old Stone Highway was number 493, one of five houses she lived in on that road. Her husband built four of them, including the last one she lived in.

A daily Bible reader with a strong faith, Mrs. Denton was born March 25, 1909, in a house still standing at 450 Old Stone Highway to Nathaniel Hayes Petty and the former Emma Jane Bond. When she was a child, she walked from her home to Springs School every day until the eighth grade, when she began to walk to the East Hampton High School. Finding that commute too long, she dropped out of high school and took classes by mail.

She also walked to Amagansett for piano lessons once a week and from the age of 8 until 10 years ago, she played the organ at St. Peter’s Chapel, also on Old Stone Highway.

At age 12, she worked as a domestic for Mrs. Charles Ross of Barnes Landing. She later worked at the Maidstone Club and for the late actor Robert Montgomery.

In 1928, when she was 19, she married Charles William Denton Jr., a carpenter, at St. Luke’s Church in East Hampton. He died in 1989. They had four children, William Nathaniel, Robert Eugene, Phyllis Lorraine Payne Ott and Jane Elizabeth White. All but Ms. White, who lives in Springs, predeceased their mother.

“She was really a wise woman who always had time for people,” said family friend Bonnie Engelhardt. “She was a very faithful woman but she wasn’t forceful about it. She was really so cheerful and upbeat—always looked at the good side of things, like the glass was half-full. And she was very grateful for every little thing.”

On the occasion of her 100th birthday, Mrs. Denton, who had sparkling blue eyes, was interviewed by The East Hampton Press and she said at the time that she owed her longevity to a strong faith and “just living a good, clean life.”

“I don’t feel 100,” she said at the time. “If you put me to a test walking around, maybe I would, but really, I don’t feel any different than I did when I was 50.”

Her daughter, Ms. White said, “My mother really enjoyed boating, bowling, working in the yard and cooking. And in her later years, she loved going to the senior adult day care center on Accabonac Road.”

Mrs. Denton remembered surviving the 1938 hurricane, while her husband was stuck out in Montauk, and she also remembers when four Nazi spies landed on Atlantic Beach in Amagansett in 1942, right next to a house her husband was building.

Mrs. Denton and her husband loved spending time on the water. “My husband used to go out in the deep water with big clam tongs, and I’d go inshore and rake, and we’d be out there all day and then ship them to market,” she recalled.

She believed that the biggest changes she had seen in the community were in the last 20 years. “It seems that now every 15 minutes things change,” she told The Press last year.

“She’s amazed at the traffic,” Ms. White said. “She also thought that neighbors were a lot closer than they are now. Nowadays, some of your neighbors you don’t even know.”

Mrs. Denton received a proclamation from the Town Board when she was 100; in 2003, she received a Bishop Award for her volunteer work at St. Peter’s Chapel, and in 2006 she was honored by the Lost Tribe of Accabonac.

In addition to her daughter, Ms. White, and son-in-law Robert E. White, Mrs. Denton is survived by nine grandchildren, Pamela Payne Alvarez and Dwayne Denton, of Springs; Loretta Maxey of Rockville Centre, Peter Maxey Jr. of Florida, Karin Ann and Howie Ott of upstate New York; Robert White Jr. of Coram; and Paul White and Phil Canale of Selden; six great-grandchildren, Brianna Semb, Phoenix Maxey, Marlene Petykowski, Daniel Denton, Shayla Denton and Alyssa Canale; a niece, Emma Gilbride; and a former son-in-law, George Payne.

She was predeceased by her siblings, Winthrop, Elliott, Nathaniel, Lloyd, Ellsworth, Lena Hendrickson and Annie Petty.

Funeral services were held at St Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton Monday at 11 a.m. Mrs. Denton was the oldest member of that church.

Burial was in Green River Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Friends of St. Peter’s and sent to Jane White, at 663 Accabonac Road, East Hampton 11937.