Obituary: Edith Monks Stark

Edith Monks Stark, a long-time Heights resident, died peacefully at home six days after her 96th birthday on August 11, 2011.

Edie was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York on August 5, 1915, the eldest of seven children. Her father, Jerome Monks, was an attorney who worked in his father’s engineering firm, John Monks and Sons, in New York City.

Her summers were spent happily at the Monks family’s Cedar Point property in East Hampton, opposite Mashomack and now a county park. Edie’s love for the water, nature, gardening, swimming, sailing and clamming was a result of her wonderful summers spent at Cedar Point. Edie’s father would row a boat full of his children over to Sag Harbor for Mass at St. Andrew’s Church and later take them all for a sail on his sloop, Snapper.

Edie attended the Master’s School and graduated first in her class from Convent of the Sacred Heart in Noroton, Connecticut. She was accepted into Oxford University but could not attend because the Greek government refused to pay its debts to John Monks and Sons, which bankrupted the family firm. The family’s next-door neighbor insisted that Edie take a secretarial course in New York City. She enlisted her chauffeur to drive Edie to New York each day until her training was completed. Edie then got a job on Wall Street until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In World War II, she joined the Red Cross and served in the Pacific theatre. Afterwards, she married Louis B. Stark in 1947. They had three children, Louis, Carol and Charley.

Edie had never been to Shelter Island but she was interested when her friend, Dorothy Evans, told her about a house across the street from the Evanses on Chequit Avenue in the Heights. In 1957, Edie and Lou purchased the house and became regular summer residents.

Edie loved Shelter Island and spent many hours working in her small but colorful and bountiful garden. She was active in the Shelter Island Garden Club as well as the Shelter Island Yacht Club, which was just down the street. Edie raced in the Senior Skipper races with her husband on their Woodpussy and was an active member of the “Sandwich Committee” at the Yacht Club.

Edie loved swimming at the Beach Club, Louis Beach, and later Hay Beach at Menhaden Lane. She played tennis regularly and sang, played the piano and was a voracious reader.

In the 1980s, Edie and Lou sold their property in New York City and became full-time Island residents. She became active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and in vegetable gardening in Dr. Barney Ryan’s backyard. Edie and Lou enjoyed playing bridge and were involved in the senior events on the Island. Up until this summer, Edie was still swimming at Louis or Hay Beach with her family and friends. In recent years, she also became a fan of the Yankees and Derek Jeter in particular and looking at pictures, e-mail and YouTube on her iPad.

She is survived by her two sons, Louis and Charley; daughter Carol Tiernan; son-in-law Chuck Tiernan; daughter-in-law Kate Hold; two grandchildren, Jamie and Molly; sisters Eileen Melvin and Virginia Burr; brother-in-law Benjamin Burr; and many nephews and nieces, all of whom will miss her, the family said. In the words of her sister Eileen, Edie was “just a very wonderful person.”

A Mass will be celebrated in Edie memory on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Isle followed by a Rite of Committal at St. Joseph’s Garden at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Edie’s name may be sent to the Shelter Island Red Cross Ambulance Corps, P.O. Box 830, Shelter Island 11964.