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Debra Marino died at her Amagansett home on March 10, after living with lung cancer for three years. She was 51.
Ms. Marino was born in the Bronx in 1962. Her formative years were spent in Yonkers, with summers in Sag Harbor. In 1976, the Marinos became year-rounders and Ms. Marino attended Pierson High School, graduating in 1980. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
Survivors said she was greatly influenced by the city, which in the early ’80s was right at the center of the growing punk and new wave scenes. Danceteria, a club renowned for popularizing and riding the new wave of music, was only a few blocks south of FIT, and Ms. Marino produced fashion shows there. CBGB’s was another favorite hangout. “She loved going to concerts and saw a lot of the seminal acts of the time,” said her husband of 15 years, Richard Kresberg.
After graduation, she worked for nearly a decade in the music industry, focusing on artist management and production. She was particularly proud of the work she did with John Luongo and Steven Machat.
Ms. Marino loved to travel and in the early ’90s made her way to Kiev, where she lived for about six months. While there, she developed what would become a lifelong connection with the Christian Orthodox faith. “She loved the traditions and rituals of the Orthodox church,” said her husband. “She lived her faith,” said Father Constantine Lazarakis of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons. “She wasn’t a Christian in name only. If there was a food drive, she would be the first one there with a carload of groceries.”
“And on one of our last walks in the city, when she was really ill, she had the strength to let go of my arm and buy a homeless man a meal,” said her husband. “That was Debi.”
In 1993, she moved back to Sag Harbor. At the time, her father, Carl, owned Harbor Cove Realty, and she began a second career as a real estate agent. Harbor Cove was across the street from Provisions, and in 1996 she met Mr. Kresberg, the owner of the store. “She would come in and we would talk,” he said. “She was a regular customer.”
In 1998, she gave birth to their son, Aaron, and selling real estate became only a part-time job. She was a devoted parent and enjoyed full-time motherhood. She felt that being a parent was the most important job in the world. “There was this family joke,” quipped Mr. Kresberg, “in the family hierarchy, first came Aaron, then came our dog, and then came me.”
In 2007, with Aaron in school full time, Ms. Marino had more time to devote to activities outside the home. As it happened, Barack Obama sparked her interest in politics. As the Organizing for Action Sag Harbor/Bridgehampton team leader, she worked diligently on his 2008 campaign, raising funds, working phone banks, canvassing neighborhoods and registering voters. During election cycles, she’d set up a table outside Provisions, where she knew there would be a steady flow of people. She was dedicated to this task and it became her passion.
She went on to become active in East End politics, and in 2010, as the Sag Harbor/Bridgehampton team leader for the Tim Bishop re-election campaign, set up a fundraiser in Sag Harbor. By the 2012 presidential campaign, she became the leader of President Obama’s Organizing for Action re-election movement, responsible for organizing all the volunteer efforts in Sag Harbor.
She loved collie dogs, a breed she had been fond of since her childhood. She reserved a special place in her heart for her dog Sasha, a mini-celebrity around Sag Harbor, where she often walked him. She also loved the beach, traveling, especially to the Caribbean and England, music, reading, nature, good food and anything British.
“She was an Anglophile through and through,” explained her husband. “From the Clash to Masterpiece Theatre to Cadbury. The running joke in our house went, if she saw an American movie and didn’t like it, I would tell her if they were speaking with British accents she would have loved it.”
Hundreds attended her funeral service at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons on March 14.
Glancing around the packed Southampton church, “Debi would love this,” Mr. Kresberg remarked during his eulogy, according to survivors. “There were a lot of sides to her personality, but her mentality was part rock star, part British royalty, so she’d appreciate this crowd.”
Apart from the many friends and family in attendance, Ms. Marino was celebrated by Father Constantine Lazarakis of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons, and also Father Christopher Calin of the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection in New York City.
Mr. Kresberg told the story of a lunch they shared in Montauk a couple of weeks before her death. “She told me she felt like she was in a state of grace,” he said. “I told her I felt the same.”
Ms. Marino is survived by her husband, Rich Kresberg of Amagansett; a son, Aaron; her mother, Barbara Marino of Sag Harbor; a brother, Carl Marino Jr. of Sag Harbor; and a close-knit extended family. Her father, Carl Marino Sr., died in October 2012.
on Mar 18, 2014