Friends and family members say they will remember Valerie Brooke Scott as a loving, giving woman, someone who was always eager to volunteer her time to help anyone in need.
Ms. Scott died in her Hampton Bays home on Sunday, February 15, with her family by her side. She was 69.
“Her favorite thing in the world to do was help others,” Ms. Scott’s daughter, Elizabeth Catz, said this week. She noted that her mother was always thoughtful, the type of person who would automatically know what was needed to be done—oftentimes before those in need even knew they required assistance.
Ms. Scott helped her husband, Ron, run the J. Ronald Scott Funeral Home in Hampton Bays for more than 40 years. After they were married, the couple moved to Hampton Bays from Queens, where they both grew up. They divorced after 33 years of marriage.
She is survived by Mr. Scott and their two children, Elizabeth Catz of Hampton Bays and Lewis Scott of Westhampton Beach, and five grandchildren: Zachary and Taylor Catz, and Adelina, Grayden and Kensley Scott. She also leaves behind her future son-in-law, Mark Pothier, who was one of her primary caretakers during the last few months of her life.
Ms. Catz said her mother loved supporting her family and would attend as many of their sporting events and shows as possible.
“She was the woman at all of the games before the team even came on the field to warm up,” Ms. Catz said, adding that her mother always sported the color purple, one of the colors of the Hampton Bays Baymen. “She’d be on the sidelines taking pictures, or at the beach wrapping the kids in their towels.”
Ms. Scott passed her love of the beach down to her children and grandchildren, all of whom went with her to the Southampton Peconic Beach Club each summer. She often went to the beach with her family and close friends. Those friends—Carole Bunning, Cindy Monaco, Carmela Cicero and Carolyn Aiello, known collectively with Ms. Scott as “the golden girls”—met shortly after Ms. Scott moved to Hampton Bays.
“She was just a giver,” Ms. Monaco said, recalling how Ms. Scott always invited friends and family to sit on her lawn during parades and would reserve the same spot in Southampton for the village’s annual Fourth of July Parade.
“When you had problems, she held you up,” Ms. Monaco continued. “When something wonderful happened, she was there to celebrate.”
Ms. Cicero said she volunteered with the Lioness Club of the Hamptons along with Ms. Scott for many years, and the two chaired the scholarship committee for several years as well. Ms. Scott was also involved with the Dominican Sisters Family Health Service, Friends of the Hampton Bays Library and volunteered and donated to many other local causes.
“She was the most loving, generous and giving to a fault,” Ms. Cicero said.
“She was a very caring person,” Ms. Bunning added. “I want her to be remembered as a good person. She truly loved everybody.”
Ms. Catz said her mother always had an open-door policy when it came to those closest to her. “She was larger than life when it came to what she called her ‘extended family,’” she said. “She would do whatever she could for anyone who needed help.”
In lieu of flowers, Ms. Catz and her brother said they would like to raise money for the Lioness Club to sponsor a seeing-eye dog in their mother’s name. Donations can be sent to the Lioness Club, P.O. Box 798, Hampton Bays 11946.
Alexa Gorman on Feb 25, 2015