Eugenia Rice Bartell Of Montauk Dies April 4

Eugenia Rice Bartell

Eugenia Rice Bartell died at her home in Montauk on April 4. She was 75.

Ms. Bartell, known as “Genia,” was born in Manhattan on June 19, 1937, and attended Friends Seminary and then moved to the family’s summer home in Belle Terre, Port Jefferson. She graduated from Earl L. Vandermullen High School, earned her degree at the State University of New York at Oneonta, and married her high school sweetheart, Michael Caraftis. The couple lived for a year in Mannheim, Germany, while her husband was stationed there with the United States Army.

When they returned to Port Jefferson from overseas, Ms. Bartell finished her education at C.W. Post and began a career as teacher of second graders. Her daughter Caran Markson said of her teaching career, “My mother loved to teach and the children responded well to her enthusiasm.”

While she enjoyed teaching and her role as a mother, she often said her life began after a trip to Gurney’s Inn in 1968. After that trip, she was to become a a permanent fixture in the hamlet.

“Montauk is filled with magic, mystery and miracles” became her theme as she quickly assimilated into the easy-going community, reading to the children at St. Therese’s Nursery School, managing the gift shop at Guild Hall, becoming a real estate agent at Monte and Monte, and eventually incorporating her love of the written word into her work by becoming a freelance editor, said her daughter. She worked with local favorite authors Richard Prince, Paul Melnyk, local photographer and former Montauk Pioneer editor Richard Lewin and others. Having found her niche as a wordsmith she soon discovered her true passion as the community editor of the Montauk Pioneer.

After the Pioneer ceased publication, she had dreamed of filling the void left behind with a true “Montauk paper.” Her daughter said, “my mother lived her life beating a different drum than the norm, but the rhythm she beat was always to make a difference for the good in the world in which she lived.”

Ms. Bartell is survived by her three children, Caran and Timothy from her first marriage, and Genia from her second marriage to Edward Bartell; five grandchildren and a brother.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 4, at 2 p.m. at the Montauk Community Church. Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue Fund, Box 901, Wainscott, NY 11975.