Tiger Gardiner of Eastport Dies September 6 - 27 East
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Obituaries / Southampton Press / 2391116

Tiger Gardiner of Eastport Dies September 6

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Tiger Gardiner

Tiger Gardiner

authorStaff Writer on Sep 8, 2025

Tiger Gardiner of Eastport died on September 6 at home with loved ones. She was 87.

She was born Caryl Mary Beer on May 11, 1938, in Brooklyn, the granddaughter of Norma May (Squires) Beer, and a seventh generation of the Squires family of Good Ground, now Hampton Bays.

At the age of 6, the family moved to Bronxville, New York, where she lived until graduating from high school. She was a legal secretary for 42 years, serving as administrative assistant to the legal unit of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 after which she worked for the prominent law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., until retiring at age 62 to pursue her lifelong passion of researching the Squires’ family of Hampton Bays (previously Good Ground.)

In 1983, she legally changed her name to Tiger Gardine. After retirement, she moved to Eastport to continue her Squires research. She was the author of “The Gardiner-Squires Connection’ and ‘The South Fork Squires.”

She was a member of the Suffolk County Historical Society and Charter Member No. 6 and lifetime member of the Hampton Bays Historical and Preservation Society and the Raynor Family Association.

She also enjoyed photography and during the summer sold her photographs under the name “PHOTIGERPHY by Tiger Gardiner.”

Visitation will be at Werner-Rothwell Funeral Home on Saturday, September 13, from 9-11 a.m. Interment will follow at Good Ground Cemetery in Hampton Bays.

In lieu of flowers, donations to East End Hospice (eeh.org) or to a cancer organization of one’s choosing, would be appreciated by the family.

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