Irma von Bergen
Former Westhampton resident Irma (Roth) von Bergen died on Sunday, March 11, at the Otsego Manor Nursing Home in Cooperstown. She was 101.
Born in Remsenburg on December 20, 1910, to Julius and Julia Roth, she was the oldest of six children. She graduated valedictorian from Westhampton Beach High School in 1929, and Plattsburgh State Normal School in 1932. She taught elementary and high school in Utica and Westhampton Beach, before retiring in the early 1970s. She married Howard St. Dennis in 1932 and spent the next 30 years living in Plattsburgh and Utica.
In 1963, she returned to her childhood home in Westhampton to care for her ailing mother. There she met and married Edwin von Bergen in 1966. The two spent their married days happily fishing and gardening. She enjoyed reading, birding with the local Audubon Club, tending her beautiful garden, knitting, canning and preserving, and fishing on the bay and at Moriches Inlet with her husband. She was active in the Westhampton Methodist Church, chairing its famous Saturday Stand for several years, baked many a clam pie for the annual church dinners and was treasurer during the fundraising and building of the church addition. She also volunteered for many years with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Riverhead.
In 2005, when her health declined, she moved to her daughter’s home in Cooperstown. She later moved to the Otsego Manor Nursing Home.
She was predeceased by her first and second husbands, Howard St. Dennis and Edwin von Bergen. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Thomas and Evelyn St. Dennis of Clinton; and two daughters and sons-in-law, Carolyn and John Lefebvre of Sun Lakes, Arizona, and Donna and Donald Bevona of Stow, Massachusetts; two stepsons and their wives, Richard and Shirley von Bergen of Byron and Thomas and Sharon von Bergen of Queens; seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, seven great-great-grandchildren, three step-grandchildren and 12 step-great-grandchildren.
A private burial in the von Bergen family cemetery in Jeffersonville will be held in the late spring. Memorial donations to Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care, 542 Main Street, Oneonta, NY 13820 would be appreciated by the family.
on Apr 2, 2012