Annette Kuhn, 67,whose combined career in government and the arts  ranged from helping produce the first Central Park “Happenings” in the Lindsay Administration to her appointment as Executive Director of the New York City Arts Commission under Mayor Edward Koch,  died of heart failure at home in her Tribeca loft on April 2.

Born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1945, to Anton and Ruth Kuhn, Annette lost her father in World War Two before her birth.  She spent her childhood and early teens in Heidleberg where five uncles (her father had ten siblings), her grandmother and mother had joined in a household that provided great warmth and support in the difficult post-war period. Her mother’s marriage to Donald Zangerle, an American technical writer, brought her first to Spain and then to Buffalo, New York where she graduated from Amherst High School. She then went to college at Hunter and obtained a Masters at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts.

Her first work for the city, under Parks Commissioner Thomas Hoving, later Director of the Metropolitan Museum, launched Annette’s impressive talents for bringing arts to public places while she nurtured lifelong friendships.  Under then  Deputy Parks Commissioner Mary Nichols, the two started  a series of Central Park “Happenings” that both attracted enormous crowds and promoted a new vision for use of the city’s public spaces.  From the Parks Department, she worked at the Village Voice, where Mary Nichols had become City Editor, writing both an Arts Column and a Parents Column which, characteristically, less encouraged parents to parent than to take their children to the exciting and varied arts events the city offered.

She was also the Curator of Art Properties at Columbia University  and, after her tenure at the city Arts Commission, worked for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She was also editor of “Women in Film: An International Guide” published by Fawcett in 1990 and co-editor of “The Women’s Companion to International Film” (University of California Press, 1994) and a contributing author to “Christ in the Council Hall,” the seminal study of imagery in the Ducal Palace in Venice.

Meanwhile, she maintained extensive close and  friendships, here and in Europe, constantly introducing people not just to each other, but to the world as she saw it—interesting, provocative and essentially wondrous.  Her many cousins remember magnificent visits of introduction to the United States as “among the best times in my life” and full of “so many new and exciting experiences.”

Her younger brother, Pablo, recalls her taking him and his sister on a 400 mile bike trip through Nova Scotia when he was 13. Typically, Annette’s sense of adventure worked wondrously. The three arrived in Halifax without one bike or place to stay, then got 3 bikes and Annette, every evening, found them a local farm or bed and breakfast where they could stay.

Survivors include her brother and sister Pablo and Natasha Zangerle, her niece Isabella and nephews Luke and Peter, her longtime companion Ted Bassett

and more than two dozen cousins.

A memorial service will be held in Sag Harbor, where she had a house for 20 years, on Sunday May 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. at 290 Main Street.

She was the wife of Carl E. Eliason to whom she was married for 41 years. She was born in Toronto, Canada on September 30, 1917, a daughter of the late William B. and Minnie M. (Reid) Stanley.

Mrs. Eliason lived her early life in Sag Harbor and, for many years, in Warwick, R.I. Mrs. Eliason worked several years for Sears in West Hartford, Conn. and the Rhode Island Mall in Warwick. She was a member of the Pioneer Lodge #506 Vasa Order of America, Verdandi Ladies, a lifetime member of the American Union Swedish Singers (AUSS) Ladies, the AUSS Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Verdandi Cultural Heritage Foundation.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by four nephews and their families. Mrs. Eliason was the mother of the late Stanley and Janice Staudinger and the sister of the late Margaret Eames.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, April 28 at 11 a.m. at Yardley & Pino Funeral Home, Sag Harbor. Interment will be in Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor.

Michael J. Adam, a resident of 42 Howard Street for the past year, died at Southampton Hospital on April 21, 2012. He was 61 years old and had previously lived on Bayview Avenue in Sag Harbor for the last 20 years.

He was born at Southampton Hospital on November 13, 1950 to William F. Adam Jr. and Dorothy (Phillips) Adam, both deceased.

Mr. Adam attended St. Andrew’s School from grades K through 8 and graduated from Pierson High School in 1968. He worked as a mason and handyman. A veteran of the Navy, he was a member of the American Legion. Mr. Adam was also an avid golfer and a one time member of Sag Harbor Golf Club. He loved playing softball, sailing with friends and was a member of the Tuesday night men’s bowling league for 25 years.

Mr. Adam had many close friends who remained a constant throughout his life and he earned a number of funny nicknames over the years, including LAU (late as usual) from his mother, Soaky (due to his brillowy hair) from his high school friends, young sparky, Mike the Spike and “the Cadillac Mason” to name a few.

Bill Horn recalled hanging out at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett with him where they rubbed elbows (literally) with Rick Danko of The Band and jammed with the likes of the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the recently deceased Levon Helm of The Band.

“Mike, being the music aficionado, would get up at a concert at Belmont Racetrack and jam on his harmonica with Pure Prairie League on stage,” recalled Bill Horn. “He was a trip.”

Friend Mary Ellen Higgins Garcia recalled that years ago, when he was in his 30s, Mr. Adam adopted a shelter dog named Spike. When the dog’s leg was injured in an accident instead of putting him down, Mr. Adam told the vet to remove the leg. “I’m not losing my dog,” he said. He became known around town to strangers as the guy with the three legged dog. She added that when Spike died, Mr. Adam refused to get another dog — his heart was broken.

Lifelong friend Dan Sabloski remembers Mr. Adam as the modern day Good Samaritan and, as a teenager, a mechanic who could fix anything on old cars. He recalled that Mr. Adam would stop to help anyone stuck on the side of the road, whether he knew them or not, and always kept extra repair gear in his car.

“Even though we weren’t born in the same family, he was my brother, a teacher, a faithful friend to the end,” said Mr. Sabloski. “He taught me a lot about masonry. I won’t be able to look at my brick walkway without thinking of him.”

Mr. Adam loved working with his hands, whether it was as a mason or as a musician playing a song on his guitar or harmonica.

He also loved clever phrasing and was known for his ability to make people laugh and smile.

“I dare you to find a photo of him without his eyes bugging out or his elbows sticking out akimbo,” joked his sister in law, Sharon.

“We’ve lost a monument of Sag Harbor,” concurred friends Steve and Jeff Peters.

Friend Ray Simek estimates he went to about 40 Grateful Dead concerts with Mr. Adam as well as several shows by “The Other Ones,” the name the band gave itself after the death of Jerry Garcia. Mr. Simek recalled that before the start of one show, Mr. Adam went off to get a beer. He returned with his drink, wobbly and weaving up the hill back to the group, and even fell and rolled all the way down it at one point. He dusted himself off and with everyone cheering and laughing, Simek recalls Mr. Adam winking at him. No beer was spilled and he was stone cold sober.

“We lost a good man, Mike had love in his heart,” said Simek. “We will miss him terribly.”

Mr. Adam is survived by two brothers, William F. Adam II of Clifton Park, N.Y. and Terence J. Adam and his wife Sharon of Sag Harbor; and a sister, Kathy Adam Grodski and her husband Ritchie of Southampton. He also leaves eight nieces and nephews.

Visiting hours were held Wednesday, April 25 at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. A mass will be held Thursday, April 26 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Andrew’s R.C. Church in Sag Harbor with interment at St. Andrew’s Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and East End Hospice.

By Annette Hinkle

Hal McKusick, a prominent jazz musician and longtime Sag Harbor resident, died April 10, 2012. He was 87 years old.

McKusick, a saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist, began his musical career in the 1940s playing in the big bands of Les Brown, Woody Herman and Boyd Raeburn. He went on to play in the Johnny Otis, Buddy Rich, Claude Thornill and Elliot Lawrence bands, among others. McKusick bore witness to the “birth of cool” the new jazz movement inspired by artists like Miles Davis who brought big band sounds to smaller ensembles. In the 1950s, McKusick began a recording career and over the years worked with virtually all the major jazz artists and arrangers of the time. He is recorded on dozens of albums and as a bandleader, recorded nine albums of his own.

He was born on June 1, 1924 in Medford, Mass. and grew up in Newton, Mass. where his father managed a milk farm, and raised horses. At the age of 8, McKusick’s mother bought him a clarinet as a Christmas present — but only with assurances that he would take lessons and practice daily.

“I had seen it in the store window with the Christmas lights on it — it was a dark wooden clarinet with silver keys — that got me,” recalled McKusick in an interview with the Express.

McKusick was true to his word. A quick learner and talented sight reader, by the age of 15, he was traveling into Boston to play at the Old Howard Theater, a burlesque house in Scollay Square. In 1942 at the age of 18, he was hired by Don Bestor, the bandleader who provided comedian Jack Benny with background music during his radio show, for a summer tour. When Bestor retired, McKusick was picked up by Les Brown’s big band and from that time through the late 1950s, he worked with virtually every major jazz artist and arranger —including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer and Bill Evans.

From 1958 to 1972 McKusick played with the CBS Studio Orchestra and continued to work in the New York music scene. He moved to Sag Harbor in 1972, but stayed involved in recording and playing in New York. In 1994, McKusick, along with two of his music students (Dr. Steven Fochios and Clarence R. Banks, Esq.) founded the Sag Harbor Jazz Festival, an organization whose goal, explained McKusick, was “to bring the legends of jazz to this area and share great music with the people.”

McKusick brought longtime colleagues as well as new world class players to Sag Harbor for biannual concerts at the Old Whalers’ Church. Audiences never knew exactly who they would see on stage, and the names included musicians like Mike LeDonne, Jerry Dodgion and Clark Terry, the legendary trumpeter and flugelhorn player.

“I purposely use different musicians in my concerts,” said McKusick in 2002. “Bands grow, I found, when the musicians are not always seated next to the same person.”

McKusick also enjoyed photography and Nikon House Galleries in New York’s Rockefeller Center featured an exhibition of his work in the 1970s. It was also in the ‘70s that McKusick earned his commercial pilot’s license and began flying charter flights on the eastern seaboard and in St. Barts where he flew passengers among the Caribbean Islands. He also enjoyed working with wood and making furniture and had a business which focused on Shaker style pieces. In addition to his private music students, in 1994, McKusick began teaching at Ross School in East Hampton where he founded the school’s jazz band. Sharing his passion for music with the next generation was a driving force and he remained involved with the jazz band until very recently.

“A good music instructor is a little bit of an analyst, a super salesman and a friend,” McKusick once told the Express. “You have to earn their respect — let them know you’ve been a lot of places already.”

McKusick is survived by his wife, Jan McKusick, and three children from a previous marriage, Richard McKusick of Pasadena, Calif., Jim McKusick of Henderson, Nevada and Leslie Ballard of Las Vegas, Nev. He also leaves two brothers, Kenneth McKusick of Orleans, Mass. and Charles McKusick of Satellite Beach, Fla., seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Two sisters predeceased him, Ruth Berry of Orleans, Mass. and Elaine Dewing of Belmont, Mass.

A public memorial service will be announced at a later date. The family invites memorial contributions to the Hal McKusick Scholarship Fund at Ross School, 18 Goodfriend Drive, East Hampton, NY 11937.

Thomas E. Gaines, 85, of Dayton Lane in East Hampton, died Saturday, April 14, 2012. His wife, the former Frances L. Carl, and three children were by his side.

He was the son of Thomas M. Gaines and Evelyn M. Ernest and was born in the family home in East Hampton on August 26, 1926.

Mr. Gaines was best known in Sag Harbor as head of the Sag Harbor Savings Bank. In the 1970s, as president and chairman of the board, he negotiated the company’s change from a state chartered mutual savings bank to a stock corporation. He then directed its transition and sale to Apple Bank for Savings. Upon relinquishing the helm of the bank, he agreed to stay on with the new owners as senior vice president of Eastern Operations. In 1989, after three years in the position, he stepped down to enjoy retirement and “put on my sunglasses and head south,” but soon developed health problems and, said his family, never fully realized his dream of days in the sun.

Mr. Gaines was a 1943 graduate of East Hampton High School. He joined the Navy and served aboard the USS Aiden and the USS Oregon City during World War II. After discharge from the Navy, he lived in New York City where he met his future wife, Frances. Mr. Gaines attended Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) where he earned a degree in business and commerce. He and Frances were married in June 1947 and lived in Oklahoma for three years while Mr. Gaines finished school.

In 1949, the couple and their young son, Thomas, moved to East Hampton. Mr. Gaines was working as a dairy manager at Bohack’s market when he was approached by Frank B. Smith, a trustee of the Sag Harbor Savings Bank, about a job. He accepted an entry level position at the bank and, according to his family, under the tutelage of Peter Garypie Sr., quickly rose from building shelves, sorting archived material and shoveling snow in the small parking lot to the position of clerk, then treasurer, and upon retirement of Mr. Garypie, assumed the position of president.

Mr. Gaines was a member of the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett and served on its board of directors (and as president in 1978). He became a member of the East Hampton ZBA in 1995, and served as chairman from 1997 to 1999. Mr. Gaines was also a member of the East Hampton Fire Department, a member of the Star of the East Lodge #843 (where he served as Master), and a member of The Independent Order of Oddfellows.

His family recalls that Mr. Gaines also cherished his daily Men’s Business luncheons at the Paradise Restaurant in Sag Harbor, which were often attended by John Steinbeck, whose friendship was special to him. The family adds that Mr. Gaines also cherished a cartoon dedicated to him which was penned by Warren Whipple, creator of the syndicated cartoon “There Ought to be a Law” and a trustee at the Sag Harbor Savings Bank.

Mr. Gaines was also active in the First Methodist Church where he served as a Sunday School teacher, a trustee, president of the board and delivered sermons as the Lay Leader.

“Tom will be remembered for his honesty, integrity, fairness, empathy, sage advice, infectious smile and mischievous sense of humor,” said the family.

Mr. Gaines is survived by Frances, his wife of 64 years, and children Tom (Patti) of Port St. Lucie, Fla., Ronald (Terri), of East Hampton, and Sandra Cohen (Steve), of East Hampton. He also leaves by seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, as well as sisters Dorothy Sayre and Jane Kovar of Williamsburg, Va. He is predeceased by his parents and his sisters Betty and Adele.

Visitation was held at Yardley & Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Tuesday an Wednesday, April 17 and 18. A funeral service will be held at the First Methodist Church in East Hampton on Thursday, July 19 at 1 p.m.. Burial will follow at Cedar Lawn Cemetery.

Donations can be made in his memory to the First Methodist Church, East Hampton Ambulance Association, or to East End Hospice, PO Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.

Elinor Tibbets Van Ingen McDade, artist, gardener, gallery owner, yoga teacher and long time resident of Sag Harbor died April 11 at Stony Brook Hospital following a massive brain hemorrhage.

Born in Seattle, Wash. in 1922, Mrs. McDade grew up on the West Coast, moving to Southern California where she worked during World War II for the Boeing Aircraft Company. An early marriage ended in divorce.

In the 1950s she joined the State Department and was sent to Vietnam where she met her future husband, Robert McDade who was stationed there with the U.S. Army.

From Saigon she went to Paris where she worked as an executive assistant to U.S. Ambassador Amory Houghton. In Paris her path again crossed that of Col. McDade. When Ambassador Houghton returned to the United States he asked her to work for him in New York at Steuben Glass. While in the city Mrs. McDade also worked as a model and started painting her witty miniatures of small animals.

Later she discovered and fell in love with Sag Harbor. With Col. McDade she bought a house on High Street where they were married in 1974.

A two year stint as second in command of an army base in the Canal Zone took the McDades to Panama where Mrs. McDade collected appliqué Molas made by the Huna women of the San Bas Islands and started teaching yoga to the Army wives.

Upon her husband’s retirement, the couple returned to Sag Harbor and bought the former Provisions store at the corner of Henry and Division streets. Here they took the old local name of the neighborhood and opened the “Goat Alley Gallery.” For the next 23 years it was part of the East End art scene.

The Gallery’s annual “725” show for artists with Sag Harbor phone numbers was a popular one. “We felt so special,” said figure painter Linda Capello who, with her husband John Capello, was always included. “If you had a 725 number, you were cool—part of the in crowd,” she remembered.

For over 30 years at 8:30 a.m. every Monday and Friday the gallery also served as a yoga classroom for a stream of local ladies and a few men; Mrs. McDade kept them limber, fit and in touch with local happenings.

Mrs. McDade had a wide range of interests and was a strong supporter of the Sag Harbor Friends of the Library, the Horticultural Alliance, ARF and the Sag Harbor Historical Society. She loved music and dancing from jazz to opera and ballet. Her small garden was an ever changing delight of seasonal flowers, a bird bath and feeders for both birds and squirrels.

“Age did not diminish her passion for life,” said writer Ursula Hegi, a yoga regular. “Elinor was a role model for me. She has been one of the most significant teachers in my life.”

More than anything else, Mrs. McDade loved the water and snorkeling. Her beach chair midway at Long Beach was a regular gathering place for her many friends most sunny afternoons from mid-May until October. Sea creatures, especially turtles along with cats, rabbits, mice and mushrooms provided subjects for her carefully observed paintings that ranged from large canvasses of elephants and giraffes down to miniatures of butterflies and bees.

Long time friend, North Haven resident Francine Silverblank said “Elinor befriended everyone and did what she could to light up their lives — and that is special!”

Mrs. McDade is survived by cousins in Seattle. The gallery at 200 Division Street will show a selection of her paintings at a farewell reception for her many friends on Sunday, April 22 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Her ashes will be scattered at a later date.

Mrs. Mclane was skilled at many crafts, among them were knitting, crocheting and rug hooking.

She was predeceased by her husband William F. McLane and two sons, William Jr. and Lawrence and brothers Edwin and Lawrence Bill. She is survived by her son Daniel McLane and his wife Rachel, five grandchildren, Daniel Jr., Denis, William, Lawrence and Shannan, 11 great-grandchildren, sisters Frances Sobotka and Barbara Roffi and many nieces and nephews.

Mrs. McLane will be greatly missed by her family and many friends.

Burial will be in Sag Harbor at a later date.

Judith Ramhorst Paris

Judith Ramhorst Paris passed away on March 31, 2012 in Columbia, South Carolina at the age of 75. Formerly of Sag Harbor, Mrs. Paris moved to South Carolina with her family in 1982. She was born in New York City, N.Y. and spent the early part of her childhood in Flushing, N.Y. before her family moved to Sag Harbor.

She is survived by her five children, Timothy Paris of Easton, Md., Matthew Paris of Brewster, N.Y., Elizabeth Paris of East Hampton, Alexander Paris of Lexington, S.C. and Stephanie Burns of Sandy Hook, Conn.; 13 grandchildren and former husband John Paris of Columbia, S.C. Mrs. Paris was the only child of the late Fredrick Ramhorst and Margaret Foley-Ramhorst of Sag Harbor.

A graduate of Pierson High School in 1953, she received her bachelor’s degree in Education from SUNY, Cortland and a Masters of Education from Southampton College, LIU. During her teaching career, Mrs. Paris taught at the one-room schoolhouse in Wainscott for seven years. Once in South Carolina, she pursued a third degree and received a Masters of Social Work from the University of South Carolina. She worked for South Carolina’s Dept. of Social Services until her retirement in 2001. She had a home in Blythewood, S.C.

Mrs. Paris was considered a gourmet cook by friends and family. She liked traveling, often visiting children and grandchildren. Some of her other interests were reading and creating jewelry.

Her family hosted a private reception in Blythewood, S.C. on Saturday, April 7, 2012 and will have a private ceremony in Sag Harbor for family and friends during the summer.