Obituary: Anna Elaine Breese, of Southold, Dies at 89

Info via DeFriest Grattan Funeral Home

Anna Elaine Breese, a Southold resident and one of the founders of a local non-profit, passed away on Wednesday, March 4, 2015. She was 89.

Breese was born on September 25, 1925, in Salisbury, Massachusetts at only two-pounds to John and Margaret Higgins.

She was a small town girl of Irish decent and her parents encouraged her independent spirit.

She received a degree in biology from Boston University, which took her to Walter Reed Research Hospital in Maryland where she met her future husband, Sydney S. Breese.

Eventually they settled on the North Fork where they raised their three children: Jack, Connie, and Peter.

Breese was politically active and community minded, volunteering her time on campaign committees and aiding Vista volunteers.

In 1965 she became one of the founders of CAST (Community Action Southold Town), a non-profit to help low-income residents of Southold Town meet their basic needs in the areas of nutrition, employment, energy, housing and education..

She supported women’s causes along with her efforts at the Southold Free Library, North Fork Community Theatre in Mattituck, hospice and the Unitarian Universalist church.

Breese also taught English to the fifth and sixth grades at the Oysterponds Elementary School in Orient for five years.

She loved books and poetry and passed along this love to the students who continue to remember her with great affection.

Breese and her husband valued travel as an educational experience and took their children on many trips and continued their journeys after the children moved on to college and careers.

She was continually curious about life, religion, relationships and education. She was masterful at word games and loved lively conversations.

While her husband was teaching at University of Virginia Medical School after retiring from Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory, Breese joined an organization in Charlottesville, Virginia addressing women’s issues and providing counseling.

She eventually became bed-bound and blind, but remained “go-to person” for anyone needing good, solid, advice as she had the perceptive ability to see matters clearly and get to the heart of the matter.

The Breese family thanked the staff of The Shores at Peconic Landing for Elaine’s care during her illness and disability.

Breese was predeceased by her husband Sydney, and is survived by her three children and their families, Jack Breese of Seattle and Southold, his wife Emily and their daughters Erica and Tracey; Constance Breese and her husband John Pavlik and their son Nolan; and Peter Breese and his children Cyrus, Susa and Stella.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, March 14, at First Universalist Church in Southold.

Internment will take place at a later date at Willow Hill Cemetery in Southold.

Memorial donations can be sent to CAST, P.O. Box 159, Greenport, NY 11944.