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Southampton resident Abigail Halsey Van Allen died on September 8 in Iowa City, Iowa, where she had spent winters since 1951. She was 86.
Born Abigail Fithian Halsey II on August 9, 1922, at Southampton Hospital, she spent summers in a Southampton Village home built in 1832 by Henry Halsey. During the summer, she swam daily in Peconic Bay, where she enjoyed the southwest breeze.
She grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from the Lotspeich and Hillsdales schools of Cincinnati. She graduated with the class of 1944 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Masschusetts, where she was a founding member of the V-8’s a cappella group. After college, she worked at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Springs, Maryland.
It was there that she met James A. Van Allen and, after a short courtship, the two were married on October 13, 1945, at the First Presbyterian Church in Southampton. The ceremony was officiated by her father, Jesse Halsey, a Presbyterian minister.
Over the years, she was an advocate for preserving open space and the preservation of landmark buildings.
According to survivors, she was a beloved and revered member of the Southampton community who touched many people’s lives.
Predeceased in August 2006 by her husband of 60 years, James A. Van Allen, she is survived by three daughters and their husbands, Cynthia Van Allen and Robert T. Schaffner of New York and East Hampton, Sarah Van Allen and Gerald R. Trimble of Washington, D.C. , and Margot Van Allen and Andy Cairns of Canada; and two sons and their wives, Peter C. Van Allen and Jennifer Goldblatt of Pennsylvania and Thomas Halsey Van Allen and Lois Smith Brady of Colorado.
She is also survived by four granddaughters, Hilary Schaffner, Elizabeth Cairns and Kate and Phoebe Van Allen; and three grandsons, Andrew Cairns, and William and Charles Van Allen.
A memorial service was held on September 14 at the University of Iowa. The family is planning a private burial in Southampton at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions to the Southampton Historical Museum and Research Center, PO Box 303, Southampton, NY 11969, or the the Peconic Land Trust, P.O. Box 1776, Southampton, NY 11969 would be appreciated by the family.
on Sep 22, 2008