Village Times Herald

A scene from Veterans of Foreign War Post 3054's Memorial Day ceremony in East Setauket. Photo by Beverly C. Tyler

THANK YOU VETERANS!

Each November, individuals across the United States gather to remember and honor the brave men and women who devoted their lives to maintaining the freedoms U.S. residents continue to enjoy. Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11 and pays tribute to all American veterans — including the living and deceased — but especially thanks the living veterans who served honorably during war or peacetime, according to History.com. 

Veterans Day originally was known as Armistice Day, which was established to commemorate the end of World War I. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name of the holiday to Veterans Day in an effort to recognize all veterans. 

That name change is just one of many interesting facts about Veterans Day.

• November 11, 1918, was largely considered the end of the “war to end all wars,” even though the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I, was signed roughly seven months later on June 28, 1919.

• The last living American WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, died in 2011. 

• While Veterans Day is an American holiday, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and France also honor the veterans of World War I and World War II on or near November 11th. Canada celebrates Remembrance Day, while Britain observes Remembrance Sunday each year on the second Sunday of November.

• The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates women make up approximately 10 percent of the veteran population. By 2025, that number is expected to climb to 12 percent. 

• In 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Veterans Day Moment of Silence Act. At 3:11 p.m. (Atlantic Standard Time) on Veterans Day, a moment of silence is observed and continues for 120 seconds.

• Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs says there are around 19 million U.S. veterans as of 2021.

Here are some Veterans Day events on Nov. 11 :

East Setauket

VFW Post 3054 will host a veterans recognition service at the Memorial Park at the corner of Shore Road and Route 25A in East Setauket on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. Residents are invited to join local veterans for a short ceremony that will feature the laying of wreaths from local community groups. For further details, call 631-751-5541.

Greenlawn

Hosted by American Legion Post 1244, a Veterans Day ceremony will be held at Greenlawn Memorial Park, Pulaski Road, Greenlawn on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. with neighboring American Legion posts plus many community groups and Scouts. Call 516-523-9391.

Port Jefferson

American Legion Wilson Ritch Post 432 invites the community to attend its Centennial Veterans Day/Armistice Day Memorial Observance Remembrance at Veterans Memorial Park on East Broadway in Port Jefferson (across from Village Hall) on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. For more information, call 631-626-2911.

Smithtown

Smithtown American Legion Post 833, and Smithtown Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10870 will hold a Veterans Day Ceremony honoring our nations veterans at Veterans Plaze, Main St., Smithtown on Nov. 11 at 10:45 p.m. Local Boy and Girl scout troops, Smithtown HS students, State, County and Town dignitaries will participate in the event.Questions? Call 724-1804.

Sound Beach

The Sound Beach Civic Association will hold a Veterans Day service on Nov. 11 at the Sound Beach Veterans Memorial Park on New York Ave. at 11 a.m. All are welcome. For more information call 631-744-6952.

St. James

Sgt. John W. Cooke VFW Post 395 will host a Veterans Day Parade in St. James on Nov. 11. The parade will kick off at 10 a.m. and head down Lake Avenue to St. James Elementary School. For more info, call 516-987-6201.

 

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Booth busy at work in a 1980 photo. File photo by Maxine Hicks

The New Yorker cartoonist and former Stony Brook resident George Booth died on Nov. 1 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 96. The cartoonist died a few days after his wife, Dione, who passed away on Oct. 26.

George Booth drew some cartoons for Frank Melville Memorial Park, including the one above. Image from Kerri Glynn

According to his obituary in The New York Times, the cause of his death was complications of dementia.

Booth was known for his cartoons that featured various quirky characters depicted as cats, dogs, mechanics, cave dwellers and churchgoers in the weekly magazine over 50 years. The magazine’s unofficial mascot was a bull terrier that appeared in several of his cartoons. 

While living in Three Village, Booth and his work was featured in The Village Times and The Village Times Herald. In 1980, he was named the paper’s Man of the Year in Media.

According to the 1980 article, the former Stony Brook resident lived in a house that once belonged to a sea captain. In the interview, he said fellow residents “let me put them in my cartoons.” However, he didn’t divulge any names.

He also received inspiration from his wife.

“Dione has been an education to me on the subject of plants, minuets and pussycats,” he said.

In The Village Times article, he said he and his two brothers grew up in Missouri, where his father trained him as a printer’s devil, an apprentice in a printing establishment. His mother was a cartoonist and musician, and she served as inspiration for his character Mrs. Ritterhouse.

In the 1980 article, he said he developed an interest in auto mechanics while living in Cold Spring Harbor. He had a Model A that always had issues.

“In order to keep it running I had to live at Bohaty’s garage in Centerport,” he said.

Among his favorite artists were Fred Lasswell, who created the “Snuffy Smith” comic strip, and portrait artist Thomas Hart Benton.

When asked which one of his cartoons he would put in a time capsule, he said “Ip Gissa Gul,” which means “ape gets a girl.”

a recent photo of George Booth taken for the documentary ‘Drawing Life.’ Photo rom Nathan Fitch/Drawing Life LLC.

He was born in Cainsville, Missouri, on June 28, 1926, according to The New York Times obituary and grew up on a farm near Fairfax, Missouri. His parents were teachers.

Booth was drafted in 1944 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Eventually he became a cartoonist for the Marine magazine Leatherneck. He attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, on the G.I. Bill. After moving to New York in 1952, he sold art to publications such as Collier’s, Look and The Saturday Evening Post. The cartoonist and his wife married in 1958.

Booth sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1969. He also illustrated children’s books, including “Wacky Wednesday” by Dr. Seuss (as Theo LeSieg) and “Here, George!” by Sandra Boynton. His art career also led him to advertising campaigns, greeting cards and animation. 

In recognition of his work, Booth won the Gag Cartoon Award by the National Cartoonists Society in 1993, and the society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He was an honorary member of Colgate University’s Class of 1939 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Stony Brook University in 2003,. He is the subject of “Drawing Life,” part of The New Yorker Documentary series.

Local reflections

Jeffrey Levinton, of Stony Brook, said he and his wife, Joan Miyazaki, were the Booths’ neighbors. He described George Booth as a kind man. The cartoonist would invite Levinton’s son Nathan when he was younger to his Stony Brook studio to see his cartoons.

Levinton added George Booth loved to tell stories and jokes.

“They often had punchlines I did not understand, but George would laugh out loud after telling them,” Levinton wrote.

He remembers one of The New Yorker covers Booth showed them.

“Dracula and a cat at the dinner table – cat with a bowl of milk and Dracula with a bowl of blood,” he said. “George also had a truly amazing pair of drawings of a carnival ride, built in his backyard — you could see the steeple of the church on Christian Avenue. The ride was physically impossible, but George had an explosion diagram of all the impossible parts of a ride where a guy zoomed about the yard and landed in a couch. This masterpiece is apparently lost.”

Levinton remembered a story that Dione Booth told him about her husband that he feels reveals the cartoonist’s character best.

“They met and George asked her out,” he said. “He told her to wear a formal dress and he appeared at her door, also dressed formally. He took her out on a very expensive night in Manhattan, night clubs and the rest. Then she didn’t hear from him for a month, and he called again, making the same invitation, same night on the town. And again. She thought, ‘Wow, I have met a rich guy.’ But he was only inviting her after selling a cartoon, blowing the whole fee on a night out. As Dione said, ‘I thought he was rich but eccentric, and I learned that he was only eccentric.’”

A recent photo of George and Dione Booth taken for the documentary ‘Drawing Life.’ Above image from Kerri Glynn; inset photo by Maxine Hicks; photo below from Nathan Fitch/Drawing Life LLC.

East Setauket architect Robert Reuter considered George Booth a treasured friend and worked in the same Stony Brook building with the cartoonist where they both had studios.

“It was sometimes just hilarious because I would be working on the other side of the wall, and all of a sudden there would be a bellow of laughter where he had drawn something or written something or whatever that just cracked him up so much,” Reuter said. 

He would often get a peek at some of The New Yorker cartoons, and Booth gave Reuter’s son, Jordan, drawing lessons “from the time he could hold the pencil.”

The architect said the cartoonist was a generous man, creating illustrations for Frank Melville Memorial Park and other organizations and people.

Reuter said over the years Booth used BIC and similar pens because he liked the “blobby ink.” Often he would draw a few versions of a character and then choose one to put into the cartoon by copying and pasting. He also was known for using Wite-Out.

Reuter said Dione was a brilliant gardener. “There was a time when her abilities as a decorator and designer, especially in landscapes, was highly revered.”

Nancy Bueti-Randall, of Stony Brook, met the couple in the 1980s when she lived in Brooklyn and was running a studio sale in St. James, and they both bought a piece of jewelry each from her. She reconnected with them when she moved to Three Village nearly 30 years ago.

“They were such an integral part of the community,” she said.

Bueti-Randall and Dione Booth belonged to the Creative Women’s Group. At each meeting, women would talk about their careers and creative pursuits.

Dione was a delightful, kind and loving person who was extremely supportive of her husband’s work and devoted to him, Bueti-Randall said. She added George consulted with his wife often.

She remembered Dione’s gardening, too, and said she made “flower arrangements that would knock your socks off.”

Bueti-Randall was also fortunate to see George Booth’s drawings in progress, and she said he always had a full workload.

“George was the most humble person,” she said. “You would never guess this man was at the top of his field.”

Bueti-Randall said Booth would go to 7-Eleven in the morning, and sit in his car for about an hour and observe people.

“He loved all kinds of people, and he was just an observer of life,” she said. “That’s what he brought to his cartoons. That was part of his work, just to sit there and observe and try to see something that was funny to him or ironic.”

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization president, Gloria Rocchio, and her husband, Richard, knew Booth and his wife. Rocchio said the cartoonist would read children stories and children’s books at the Educational & Cultural Center during WMHO’s Hot Cocoa Series.

“Richard and I admired him,” she said. “He had a very interesting life. He and his wife lived in Stony Brook for a very long time, and they wanted to be very unassuming. To many people George was a world-renowned cartoonist, and rightly so, but to many of us in Stony Brook he was just our friend George.”

George and Dione Booth leave behind their daughter Sarah, who lives in Brooklyn.

Polls closed in New York at 9 p.m.

Check out results from the state, federal and local North Shore races as they come in on election night.  All results are courtesy of the New York State Board of Elections.

New York State Governor

Kathy Hochul (D): 52.65%; 3,031,877

Lee Zeldin (R): 47.35%; 2,727,152

U.S. Senator

Chuck Schumer (D): 55.84%; 3,109,157

Joe Pinion (R): 42.58%; 2,407,399

Diane Sare (LRE): .93%; 51,650

U.S. Congress CD#1

Bridget Fleming (D) 44.14%; 136,899

Nick LaLota (R) 55.86%; 173,275

New York State Senate SD # 1

Skyler Johnson (D) 43.55%; 55,362

Anthony Palumbo (R) 56.45%;  71,752

New York State Senate SD # 2

Susan Berland (D) 41.89%; 57,936

Mario Mattera (R) 58.11%; 80,362

New York State Assemblyman AD #2

Wendy Hamberger (D) 33.83%; 18,309

Jodi Giglio (R) 66.17%; 35,809

New York State Assemblyman AD #4

Steve Englebright (D) 48.95%; 22,734

Edward Flood (R) 51.05%; 23,707

New York State Assemblyman AD #8

Jeanine Aponte (D) 31.46%; 18,747

Michael Fitzpatrick (R) 68.45%; 40,851

New York State Assemblyman AD #10

Steve Stern (D): 54.73%; 23,896

Aamir Sultan (R): 45.27%; 19,763

New York State Assemblyman AD #12

Cooper Macco (D) 42.46%; 20,271

Keith Brown (R) 57.54%; 29,818

Suffolk County Clerk

Lisa Jimenez (D): 40.91%; 214,852

Vincent Puleo (R): 58.97%; 309,734

Suffolk County Comptroller

Thomas Dolan (D): 39.93%; 212,790

John Kennedy (R): 59.95%; 319,468

Proposition 1:

Yes – 69%; 2,439,615

No – 31%; 1,081,482

Proposition 2:

Yes – 85.9%; 438,755

No – 14.1%; 72,027

Last updated Nov. 9 at 11:55 a.m.

Ward Melville won the first set by 10 points, looking to make it a clean sweep in the Suffolk Class AA volleyball championship Monday night, Nov. 7. However, the Commack Cougars edged the Patriots, 29-17, in the second set and 26-24 in the third.

Commack, the No. 4 seed, took command of the fourth set, picking off the Patriots, 25-20, for the county title.

Commack co-captain Mikalah Curran had 26 kills and 14 digs, and her younger sister Kaitlin killed 8, had 15 digs and two service aces.

The win lifts the Commack girls volleyball team to 14-2 this season, and they will take on Massapequa for the Long Island Championship game at Hauppauge High School on Thursday, Nov. 10. First service is slated for 5 p.m.

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Marissa Tonic, Peyton Costello and Elyse Munoz after the win.

On Saturday, Nov. 5, the Ward Melville Patriots girls varsity soccer team made history by defeating the defending New York State Champions, Massapequa High School, to win the Class AA Long Island Championship. This is Ward Melville’s first time winning the Long Island Championship.

Massapequa has won seven out of the last eight years it has been played. Ward Melville will be heading to Cortland on Saturday to play in the state semi-finals against Monroe-Woodbury High School. The winner of that game will play in the state finals on Sunday, also in Cortland.

The community is planning a big send-off for the girls on Friday morning at 7 a.m. in Ward Melville High School’s north parking lot.

Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, state Assemblyman Steve Englebright and county Legislator Kara Hahn unveil the new sign. Photo by Robert Pellegrino

A sign featuring photos and a historical narrative now marks the spot of a local landmark.

Three Village Community Trust members celebrate the unveiling of the new sign at Patriots Rock. Phot by Rita J. Egan

Elected officials, members of the Three Village Historical Society and a handful of residents joined the Three Village Community Trust in the unveiling of its new interpretive sign at Patriots Rock. The trust has been working to install signs at its properties throughout the Three Village area.

The 18-inch-by-24-inch sign at Patriots Rock, across from the Setauket Post Office on Main Street, sits atop a small metal pedestal and provides information about the area’s local importance, including the spot being a Native American meeting place and the grounds of the Battle of Setauket. During the Revolutionary War, American Patriots used the rock as a base to launch an attack against British soldiers occupying Setauket Presbyterian Church.

Signs also are situated at the Smith/de Zafra House, Brookhaven’s original town hall, and the Factory Worker Houses. TVCT began the project a few years ago, and the trust’s president, Herb Mones, said the project was based on three ideas.

“One was our hope to educate and inform residents about the history, the architecture, the economy and the culture that existed in our ever-evolving community,” he said.

The president added the hope was also to show how unique the area was, and the signs demonstrated TVCT was an active organization.

At the unveiling, Mones thanked those who worked on the project, including Robert Reuter, Greg de Bruin, Norma Watson, Paul D’Amico, Peter Legakis and Gretchen Oldrin Mones. He added Three Village Historical Society historian Beverly C. Tyler and Town of Brookhaven historian Barbara Russell assisted in verifying the information, and Tammy Burkle of Studio 631 finalized the design of the plaques.

A county cultural grant obtained by Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and a matching-challenge state grant from Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) funded the project, according to Mones. He added Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) provided guidance during the process. All three were on hand for the unveiling.

Mones said the property once belonged to Tyler’s family, and when TVCT acquired the property the trust was able to do so with a grant through Englebright’s office.

Community members joined the Three Village Community Trust in the unveiling of a new sign at Patriots Rock. Photo by Rita J. Egan

Hahn said she often wonders what was going through the minds of the soldiers who hid behind Patriots Rock during the Battle of Setauket.

“[That kind of history] is why this community is so special — it’s that strong sense of place tied to the birth of this great nation. Helping to remind folks of the significance of this spot, and every other spot that we were able to place signs at, is important to educate about and honor the tradition and history here.” Hahn said.

Englebright, who is a geologist, said in addition to remembering the history of the site, he said, “I can’t help but get excited about it because it’s very geological.”

He said Patriots Rock is only one or two main rocks in the community, and “this is the one with the greatest significance.”

“The first thing we had to do was save it,” Englebright said. “The next thing we have to do is what we’re doing today, which is to make sure that it’s properly interpreted, and that it is accessing the public’s excitement about our history because the history of our community helps you find a sense of place — and our sense of place is integral to our quality of life and a sense of community pride.”

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, Democratic Party nominee for NY-1. Photo by Rita J. Egan

This November, residents of New York’s 1st Congressional District are presented with two well-intentioned, highly informed candidates for U.S. Congress. Given the choice of only one, the majority of the TBR News Media endorses Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming.

In our nearly two hours with the candidates, Fleming’s candor, intelligence, depth of insight and passion for the issues set her apart. Fleming expressed sincere concern for these matters and how they may affect real people. She did not speak of policies as a detached lawmaker but rather as a reflection of deeply held core values.

Whether on the economy, environment or future of American democracy, Fleming seemed deeply immersed in these subjects. Her platform seems guided by research and independent investigation but with a constant, overriding spirit of empathy and compassion driving her positions.

At this critical moment in our national history, Americans need to elect policymakers who can relate to the plight of ordinary citizens while engaging in reasoned, nuanced and empathetic policy debates. In her decades of experience championing her core beliefs, whether as a criminal prosecutor or public official, Fleming has proven she can do just that.

We hold that Fleming is the right person to represent the people of this district. This November, TBR News Media’s majority supports Bridget Fleming for NY-1.

Nick LaLota, Republican Party nominee for NY-1. Photo by Rita J. Egan

The United States Congress has lost its way, and it is up to us, the voters, to put it back on track. If elected, Nick LaLota wants to do just that.

Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the way Congress handles its work. Partisanship and polarization have eroded our national dialogue, and our elected representatives behave as children on a national stage. 

Meanwhile, with each passing year, Congress delegates more of its power to the executive and the innumerable agencies and offices that comprise the federal bureaucracy.

The Framers envisioned Congress as the preeminent branch of the federal government. They believed the legislature would be closest and most accountable to the people. Our forebears would be appalled at how Congress has devolved, how our elected representatives pass the buck to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.

LaLota seems sensitive to this truth. In our office debate, he advocated for serious Congressional reform. LaLota supports limiting the size and scope of federal legislation, trimming the legislative process of its pork-barreling and partisan earmarking, and restricting the authority of the bureaucracy.

We need to revive the power and prestige of Congress. Nick LaLota has a plan to help get us there. This November, TBR News Media’s minority endorses him for Congress.

METRO photo

This is a rerun of last year’s explanation, updated for the current elections. 

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

Inside this issue is a treasure trove of first-hand information about the candidates and the issues in the coming election. How do I know? Because we, the different members of the editorial board of Times Beacon Record Newspapers, personally interviewed people running for office across the three towns that we serve: Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington. The offices the candidates are running for are all local except for Congress, which means that these are the officials who will have the most direct effect on our lives. 

The positions range this year from county  comptroller and county clerk to state senators, and assembly men and women and Congress.

We asked them questions without bias, seeking only to understand who they were, what they believed and what we could expect from each of them, should they be elected — or re-elected, as the case might be. The setting in our conference room was relaxed, and we hoped comfortable, with opponents for each office seated together around the table responding to questions put to them by our editors and reporters. 

Sometimes there was only one candidate who  might be running unopposed or against a shadow opponent, but mostly there were two during each session. Most of the time, the hour went by calmly, but occasionally the opponents get testy with each other — they may even become openly hostile.

METRO photo

At one such session some years ago, one of the candidates invited the other out to the back parking lot “to settle things.” When the other began to take off his jacket, we quickly intervened. But there were no such flare-ups this year. 

The answers were timed in an attempt to get to the main ideas without running on too long. There was ample time at the end for each visitor to tell us anything more that perhaps we hadn’t elicited with our questioning. 

We discussed the candidates at the end of each hour and came to a conclusion for the endorsement. 

We have written up the details of each interview in a separate article for the election section. Most of the time, the editorial group was unanimous because the choices were fairly direct. But for a couple of races, we talked over the pros and cons of each candidate at length before making the selection. These endorsements are based on both the in-depth interviews and the considerable information we know about the incumbents since we have been covering them closely throughout their terms in office. Of course, after reading the stories, you may or may not agree with our conclusions. Our job is to get you thinking.

The many hours that are given to this task, throughout the month of October, are a service for our readers. We are privileged to enjoy an extended face-to-face time with those standing for election, and we feel an obligation to pass along whatever information, facts and impressions we gather during these sessions. We sincerely hope we help in the sometimes-difficult job of casting a responsible vote.

Each year we include in the election section a sample ballot that we are able to procure from the Suffolk County Board of Elections because readers have told us that it is a great advantage for them to receive the ballot at the voting poll already knowing how it is laid out.

Our editorial board is made up of staffers with different political leanings, but when we put our journalists’ hats on, we try to judge each race strictly on the merits of the opposing candidates. And while it is technically possible for me to be tyrannical about the final selections, that is almost never the case. We decide by majority rule.

Sincere thanks to the talented staff who join in this extra work each year. We truly believe that we are watchdogs for the people, and nowhere is that more necessary than in reporting about government and its office holders. We hope we have helped you, whether you read by newspaper and/or online. Now please vote. 

TBR conducted a phone interview with Democrat Lisa Jimenez, left, and Republican Vincent Puleo, right, stopped by the office to discuss the 2022 county clerk race. Photo of Jimenez from candidate; photo of Puleo by Raymond Janis

For Suffolk County clerk, TBR News Media endorses Vincent Puleo.

Puleo has an impressive track record regarding organizing and digitizing records in the Town of Smithtown where he currently is town clerk. He also was able to get the Smithtown town clerk’s office back and running quickly after the COVID-19 shutdowns, with residents emailing the office and setting up appointments. The office was one of the easiest places to get a marriage license at the beginning of the pandemic.

He also has a good track record in obtaining grants to supplement the municipality’s budget.

We agree with Lisa Jimenez that her career and volunteer work have provided her with a wealth of valuable experience where she can quickly learn what she needs to do. But when you have someone like Puleo who has already run a similar office, it seems his win would lead to a seamless transition when Judith Pascale’s term ends.

After the county cyberattack that led to a backup in services, we need someone who can step into the position and hit the ground running. For us, that person is Puleo.