Janice Blair Whalen Of Amagansett Dies December 5

Janice Diana Blair Whalen of Amagansett died on December 5, 2016, while at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. She was 43.

Ms. Whalen was born in Bog Walk, Jamaica, West Indies, on January 4, 1973. She came to the United States in 1994 at the age of 21, to study nursing at Canada College in Redwood City, California. She became a nursing aide and worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park, California, from 1997 to 2004.

Ms. Whalen was by profession and inclination a nurse, although she did not practice much in that field while living on Long Island. She developed schizophrenia at the age of 28, and in 2004 moved from California to the East End of Long Island. She eventually settled in the Town of East Hampton, and from 2007 to the time of her death, primarily worked as a cashier, most notably at the Amagansett IGA supermarket. She worked at Balsam Farms in Amagansett during the summer and fall of this year.

While in Eastern Long Island Hospital earlier this month, being treated for her schizophrenia, she died and her cause of death is officially considered undetermined, and investigations are under way by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, the New York State Department of Health, and Eastern Long Island Hospital itself.

She married Richard Whalen, an Amagansett attorney, on October 29, 2011. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Amagansett, and she developed a passion for hiking and other outdoor activities with her husband. Despite the schizophrenia, which occasionally afflicted her, she was known for her vibrant, cheerful, and generous personality. She touched hearts wherever she went, survivors said.

Besides her husband, she is survived by her parents, Lloyd Blair and Merlyn Newton Blair, both of Jamaica; and three sisters, Florence Blair-Gayle of Jamaica, Ann-Marie Blair Thompson of Jamaica, and Tania Siddo of Virginia; and a brother, Patrick Blair of Jamaica. She was predeceased by a brother, Keith Blair.