Lynne Emily Delfausse

Lynne Delfausse

Lynne Delfausse died quietly in her sleep at her home in Mattituck on Monday morning, April 26. She had been suffering for many years from primary progressive aphasia, a debilitating neurological disease.

Lynne was born April 1, 1943, in Rockville Centre. She went to South Side High School, got good grades and was elected to the National Honor Society. She went to the University of Rhode Island, where she studied early childhood education. After graduation, she taught kindergarten in Madison, Conn., for a year.

She moved to Manhattan, where she lived in a rent-controlled apartment on East 78th Street. She taught at a private church school and later at a Montessori School and for about a year worked as a computer programmer at the Equitable Life Insurance Co. During this time, she became active in the young people’s group at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York.

In 1981, wanting a change in scenery, she moved to Houston, Texas, where she taught school for a short time. In 1982, she moved to Mattituck, living in the house previously owned by her mother and stepfather, who had moved to Florida. She worked briefly at Head Start and then as a waitress. In 1986, Lynne bought her house on New Suffolk Avenue.

She took a job at the North Fork Early Learning Center, devoting a great amount of energy to the curriculum and garden and caring for the rabbits. She loved playing the guitar and singing with the children.

Like her grandmother, Lynne loved to paint watercolors and painted many scenes of the North Fork.

Lynne is survived by her mother, Margherita Moore of Venice, Fla., and by her three brothers, Joseph Delfausse of Brooklyn, John Delfausse of Sun City, S.C., and Robert Delfausse of Garrison, N.Y. She will be greatly missed by all of us, including her longtime friends Mary Raynor, Joe Nockelin and Lola Agoyan, who cared for Lynne until the end.

There will be a memorial service Saturday, May 1, at 1 p.m. at Mattituck Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Taub Institute for Alzheimer’s Research, attn: Robin Roy, N.Y. Presbyterian Medical Center, 630 W. 168th St., New York, NY 10032. Please make checks payable to Columbia University and mention Alzheimer’s Research and Lynne’s name in the memo line.