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John Joseph Blaney
John Blaney of Westhampton Beach died peacefully at home on February 12 with his beloved partner Ellen Worth by his side. He was 74.
Blaney was born in Woodhaven, Queens, grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and moved to Westhampton Beach after graduating from St. John’s University. He was drawn to the natural beauty of Westhampton Beach as a young man. He loved learning about the area’s history, and was ever a fixture of the town’s vibrant social life, his family said.
A visionary and accomplished real estate developer, he was active on Long Island’s East End for nearly 50 years, and became a successful appraiser in the latter part of his career. He established Blaney Realty in the 1970s and maintained an office on Main Street for many decades. He was co-owner of the nightclub Scarletts, a discothèque on Mill Road in the 1970s and ’80s. He was a member of the Southampton Town Planning Board from 2000 through 2020.
Blaney was an avid fisherman and swimmer, and loved spending time at Rogers Beach and taking his motor boat out to the shallows of Peconic Bay in search of clams. A skilled golfer, he also enjoyed practicing yoga, and looked forward to summer visits to Briermere Farms and Snowflake Ice Cream in Riverhead.
He loved the lakes and rivers of the Catskills and Poconos, where he spent many happy summers with his parents and sisters growing up. Trips to Alaska, the Caribbean, New Orleans, Florida and Europe fed his curiosity about the world.
He was a music lover with wide-ranging tastes, from Bob Marley and the Wailers to Stephen Sondheim. He adored vintage cinema, and the works of Thomas Mann and Charles Dickens, especially The Pickwick Papers. A warm and witty raconteur, no dinner was complete without his keen insights woven together between laughs, his family recalled.
He was a generous supporter of numerous causes, most of which were deeply connected to the landscape and community he loved: the Peconic Land Trust, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and his alma mater, Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens.
He is survived by his loving partner Ellen Worth of Westhampton Beach; sister Katherine Blaney-Miller and her husband Peter Miller of New York; nieces Sarah Archer and her husband Manny Citron of Philadelphia, Lynn Ballas of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Diane Ballas Smith and her husband Tom of White Plains, New York; and nephew Christopher Ballas and his wife Laura of Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. His sister Eileen Ballas preceded him in death.
Family and friends may call on Wednesday, February 16, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Werner Rothwell Funeral Home, 60 Mill Road, Westhampton Beach, (631) 288-1231.
Mass of Christian Burial will be offered on Thursday, February 17, at 11 a.m. at The Church of the Immaculate Conception, 580 Main Street, Westhampton Beach, (631) 288-1423.
Burial will be private at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his memory to East End Hospice, Peconic Land Trust, or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
To offer online condolences to the family, visit wernerrothwell.com.
Staff Writer on Feb 14, 2022