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Former part-time Water Mill resident Evelyn Abrams Keough of Delray Beach, Florida, died on February 16. She was 101.
Born May 6, 1907—she referred to her birth date as five six seven and called them her lucky numbers—in Rockville Centre to Harriet (née Hopey) and Augustus Jordan Abrams, she was named for the actress Evelyn Nesbit. A graduate of Lynbrook High School, she finished her education at Brown’s Business College in New York.
While working as a secretary to an architect in Manhattan, she met her future husband, John “Irving” Keough at a YMCA dance. The two were married on August 16, 1930, in Dunellen, New Jersey, and initially settled in Connecticut, moving to Farmingdale after two years to raise their family. In Farmingdale, she became a leader for the Nassau County Home Demonstration Agency, teaching homemaking services, while her husband was hired as one of the first employees at Republic Aviation in Farmingdale.
Mr. Keough was promoted to factory manager during World War II, supervising the production of thousands of P-47 airplanes. Following her husband’s death in 1956, she saw that her youngest child finished high school and put him through college at Cornell University. In the early ’60s, she moved to Delray Beach to care for her mother.
She sold real estate in Florida, and in her spare time enjoyed playing golf and competing in ballroom dancing. She won numerous dancing awards until she turned 90. She also loved to travel, exploring many countries around the world, and spent many summers visiting with her grandchildren and her daughter, Norma Keough Corwith, in Water Mill.
She is survived by a son, John David Keough and his wife Arlyn of Conneciticut; a son-in-law, Paul Corwith and his wife Helen of Water Mill; six grandchildren, Corwith Pickering of Sag Harbor, Doreen Corwith Eckert and David Corwith, both of Water Mill, Darcy Keough and Ridge Keough, both of Connecticut, and Gayle Mark Corwith of Virginia; and eight great-grandchildren, Travis, Samantha, Kelly, Audrey and Ryan Corwith, Adrian and Lucas Pickering and Sarah Eckert.
In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by a son, Edward “Bussie” Keough, who died as a child, and a daughter, Norma Keough Corwith.
A memorial service is planned in the spring at the Mt. Olive Cemetery in New Jersey.
on Mar 11, 2009