Ethel Kidwell of Sag Harbor died on July 28 at Beebe Hospital in Lewes, Delaware. She was 86.
Born on April 13, 1927, in Ozone Park, she was the daughter of Richard W. Peterson and Julia Clark, both of whom predeceased her.
Ms. Kidwell attended John Adams High School in Queens and after she married Vincent Kidwell she chose to be a stay-at-home mom. When her daughters were grown, she took a job as a manager of a store in a supermarket chain. To be closer to her granddaughters, she and her husband retired and built a home in Sag Harbor in 1978.
Among her favorite pastimes were giving refuge to stray animals and knitting. There were many recipients of the beautiful items she knitted over the years, survivors said. They added that her greatest joy was being a grandmother and then a great-grandmother, and that she never missed an event in which her granddaughters participated.
Ms. Kidwell is survived by two daughters, Susan Swobodzinski and husband John of Delaware (formerly of Sag Harbor), and Sharon Sisti of Buffalo; two granddaughters, Julie Swobodzinski of North Carolina, and Meredith Borrelli and husband AJ of New Jersey; great-grandchildren, Christopher and Lorelai Borrelli; a sister, Eleanor Asher; a brother, Will Peterson; and a sister-in-law, Elizabeth (Kidwell) Swoboda.
She was predeceased by her husband, Vincent; a daughter, Judith Elizabeth; and two brothers, Richard Peterson and Walter Peterson.
Ms. Kidwell was interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale.
on Aug 19, 2013