Dolores J. Fenn

Dolores J. Fenn, formerly of New York City and Sag Harbor, passed away Nov. 4, 2014, at Stony Brook Hospital on Long Island. For the past three years, she had been a resident of Peconic Landing in Greenport. 

Born in Patterson, N.J., in 1925 and growing up in Lincoln Park, Dolores lived a rich life with interests in world travel, photography, fine arts, fashion, gourmet cooking, and needlecraft. In the early 1950s, she had the opportunity to live in Rome, Italy, holding a job with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She lived in Rome for five years, using vacation time to travel throughout Europe and parts of the Middle East. When she returned to the United States, it was with a copious amount of slides, colorful tales, and a lifelong interest in international cooking.

For over 50 years, Dolores lived in Manhattan and weekended in Sag Harbor, home of her sister, Camille Fenn Hedges, and her brother, Otto Fenn. She frequently visited Paris, where another brother, Gene Fenn, was a prominent fashion photographer. During her years in New York, she took Chinese cooking lessons and would do her “homework” on weekends by cooking elaborate Chinese feasts for her family. She became an avid collector of cookbooks, fine tableware, postcards, artists’ books, and children’s books.

Dolores earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Columbia University and later got a master’s in library and information science. Knitting, embroidery, and other types of needlework were favorite pastimes of hers.

In late 2011, she put the family home, Sag Harbor’s Gingerbread House, up for sale and moved to Peconic Landing. She joined many interest groups and took many classes there, including fine art, music appreciation, needlework, and history. Dolores was an active member of the art committee, took many trips to New York City, and painted portraits of her friends’ pets. She lived an active life up to her last day and passed away with her makeup perfectly done, as she would have wanted.

She was buried Nov. 10, in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Arrangements were in the care of the Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport.

This is a paid notice.