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Edwina M. Proper
Edwina M. Dougherty Malone Proper of Westhampton died on September 2 at Peconic Bay Medical Center, surrounded by her six children and holding her husband’s hand. She was 79.
“Mickey,” as she was known, was of true Irish stock. Raised by her mother, her Aunt Anna and her grandparents through World War II, she learned the value of hard work and persistence, despite tough times.
Raising six children of her own, she was a very hardy woman. “She wasn’t a small lady,” said her son Jim Malone. “She had some build to her, but that’s why we loved her.”
Ms. Proper owned and operated the Bamboo Restaurant in Westhampton with her husband Lane Proper throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. Wanting to impress the value of hard work in her children, they worked as waiters, bartenders and busers growing up.
As the center of her family, Ms. Proper lived for having holiday dinners and birthday parties. “She was the epitome of family,” Mr. Malone said. “Anything that I take away from the past 50 years is that there was such an amazing part of my mom. There was a level of unconditional love that was unquestioned and there was always constant support.”
Despite facing many health problems from 2005 on, Ms. Proper was determined to be her family’s backbone. Through cancer, multiple knee replacements, hip construction and macular degeneration, she kept her strength.
“She still ran the family, she was still in charge. It was just a setback, and she’d bounce back,” Mr. Malone said.
On Thursday, September 1, while in the hospital for kidney failure, she showed promise.
“She was 45 again, we thought she was pulling out another miracle, but Thursday night into Friday, God had another plan and saw that she’d fought enough,” he said. “We are blessed to have had her touch our lives in such a beautiful way, she truly was of the best and the greatest generation. She lives on.”
In addition to her husband, Lane Proper, she is survived by her children, Michael Proper, Donna and Domenic DeLucia, Raymond and Donna Malone, JoAnn (Coretti) Malone, William and Teresa Malone, Michael Malone, Debi Malone, and James Malone; grandchildren, Nick and Anna DeLucia, Alison (Shearer) and Jaclynn Malone, Ryan and Adam Malone, and Samantha and Zachary Malone; and great-grandchildren, Dante and Ria Shearer.
Family received friends at Follett and Werner Funeral Home in Westhampton Beach on Tuesday, September 6. A funeral Mass took place on Wednesday, September 7, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Quiogue with interment following at St. Isadore’s Cemetery in Baiting Hollow.
on Sep 6, 2011