Margery Gerdes Fates-Tessier

Margery Gerdes Fates-Tessier of Greenport died Aug. 3. She was 92 years old.

She was born Feb. 14, 1921, to John and Theodora Gerdes of New York and was a graduate of the Chapin School, Vassar College and Yale Law School. Ms. Fates-Tessier was a member of the New York State Bar Association and served as a volunteer public defender for Family Court in Westbury. She was also chairman of Radiology Volunteers at Huntington Hospital.

Ms. Fates-Tessier belonged to several clubs, including Piping Rock Club, Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club and North Country Garden Club, and was a life member of the Colony Club and Colonial Dames of America. She was also an active member of St. John’s Church in Cold Spring Harbor, where she sang in the church choir, which she founded in the early 1950s with her first husband, Dudley Miller, who predeceased her.

She is survived by her husband, John S. Tessier; her children, D. Livingston Miller Jr. of Greenwich, Conn., Alexandra Howard of Laurel Hollow, N.Y., and John’s Island, Fla., and Courtlandt Miller of Palm Beach, Fla.; five grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her sister, Janet Short.

A service will take place Saturday, Oct. 26, at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Church in Cold Spring Harbor. Funeral arrangements were handled by Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport.

Memorial donations may be made to St. John’s Church, P.O. Box 266, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724.