Shelter Island Reporter obituaries: Gross, Petry

Susan Gay Gross
Susan Gay Gross of Shelter Island passed away on Friday, June 2, 2017 at home of natural causes.

She was 82.

Susan was born in Somerset, England on March 31, 1935 to Godfry and Margaret Eden. She worked in retail in England and later in New York. She was married for 39 years to Ralph Gross, who died in 2008. The couple had travelled extensively throughout the world.

Mrs. Gross is survived by stepsons Richard Gross of Coram and Gary Gross of Hampton Bays, and grandson Nicholas E. Gross of Shelter Island.

Family say she will be very much missed by friends and family. A celebration of her life is planned for a date yet to be determined.

Edith Petry
Edith “Edie” Petry, a lifelong visitor to Shelter Island who became a full-time resident in 1962 when her husband and father acquired the Pridwin Hotel with Paul and Dorothy Mobius, died peacefully in her home on June 9, 2017 after a protracted illness.

Born on July 11, 1938, Edith Caroline Frost was raised in Douglaston, Queens and attended Bayside High School followed by secretarial school. In 1957 she married Richard A. Petry, whom she met while he was a cadet at the nearby Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy. Edie and Dick moved to Long Beach and both commuted to work in New York City, Dick to the Hudson River piers and Edie to the Chrysler Building.

Dick had his eyes set on moving out of the city, preferably to a place with water and fishing, when Edie’s father, Frederick Frost, noted that the Pridwin Hotel was for sale.

The Frosts had vacationed each summer at the Pridwin since the early 1930s and Fred saw it as an opportunity to retire with his wife, Mildred, to the Island.

In 1962, Edie and Dick had their first son, Glenn, followed in 1968 by Gregg.

A striking beauty with a keen fashion sense, Edie went through a bit of a “Green Acres” phase after first moving to Shelter Island, her family remembered, but her unique combination of style, approachability and “Did she really just say that?” sense of humor won her some influential fans.

The Island eventually claimed her as one of its own, her family recalled.

She always remembered a warm welcome from Evelyn Curry, wife of Dr. Donald Curry, Gracie and Stelvio Silvani, and many others who became friends, her family said. In later years, they said, she always looked forward to Thanksgiving spent in St. Maarten with Jackie and Tut Tuttle.

Edie was no newcomer to the region since her mother, Mildred Weed, came from a rich ancestry on the East End, including Josiah Stanborough, a distant relative who left Lynn, Massachusetts in 1640 and landed on what is now known as Conscience Point. Mr. Stanborough would become an original settler of Southampton and built a house in Sagg, today known as Sagaponack. Edie’s ninth great-grandparents were Thomas Halsey and Elizabeth Phoebe Wheeler, whose house, “The Halsey House,” is now a museum in Southampton.

In addition to her husband and sons, Edie is survived by her sister, Jacqueline Frost, and grandchildren, Seneca, Ella, Jem and Todd who knew her as “Mimi.”

There will be a wake Thursday, June 15 at Shelter Island Funeral Home from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, June 16 at the Union Chapel.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggested donations to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons or East End Hospice.