Jacqueline ‘Frenchie’ Perez of Sag Harbor Dies December 31

Jacqueline “Frenchie” Perez died peacefully at home in Sag Harbor on December 31, with her daughter, Minerva Perez, by her side. She was 81.

With her striking beauty, she had a career in her youth as an actress on the stage and screen, including a role in the 1965 film “The Nest of the Cuckoo Bird.” She had begun acting in full productions at the Ruth Foreman Playhouse while still in high school, and moved to New York City at the age of 18 to further pursue the performing arts.

Many knew her for her love of rock-n-roll and reggae music and for her love of dancing. She and her daughter often danced at East Hampton Pointe and whenever a band would play outdoors in the park in Sag Harbor. She had “a very free style” of moving, and would dance “in her slippers, in her bare feet, in her flip flops,” her daughter said.

She particularly loved to shop at Claire’s in Bridgehampton. She would browse for hours at the boutique filled with bows and baubles popular among teenagers, and would in turn share these items as presents for friends and neighbors.

She was born in Boston in 1943 and grew up in south Florida. While pursuing acting, she also struggled with her mental health, and she and her mother, Dorothy, moved to Sag Harbor in 2006 to live with Minerva Perez. This move allowed her to meet new people “who embraced her for who she was, and that was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced,” her daughter said. “There was something magical about how she engaged with the world around her.”

She also enjoyed making art. Her watercolors and colored-pencil drawings, along with her collection of treasures from Claire’s, will be on display at a celebration of her life at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum on Monday, January 27, from 6-9 p.m. All friends and community members have been invited to dance along with her and her family; those who attend are asked to bring food or drink to share with others.

“We will celebrate the life that we have, and we will dance, which is what Frenchie would have wanted,” Minerva Perez said.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her granddaughter, Skylar; her son-in-law, Tien; and two brothers, Ron Scelza and Victor Scelza.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations have been suggested to East End Hospice (eeh.org).