Edith W. Evans, former Massapequa resident and local real estate agent

by Christina Laquidara

Edith W. Evans, a former real estate agent, who sold "High Hopes," the Dutch Colonial on Ocean Avenue in Amityville known as the "Amityville Horror House," to the family that claimed it was haunted, died on Wednesday December 20, 2000 at Brunswick Hospital in Amityville from a brain aneurysm. The Amityville resident, who also lived in Massapequa, was 79.

Mrs. Evans, born Edith Wrege, was born on January 9, 1921 in Jersey City, N.J. She attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn, where she met Andrew Evans, a student one year her senior. The two were high school sweethearts. He graduated in 1938, she in 1939, and the couple married on May 23, 1942 at City Hall in Brooklyn. Following high school, Mrs. Evans attended George Washington Secretarial School in Brooklyn for two years.

Mrs. Evans worked in Washington, D.C. when her husband was stationed there in the Chief of Staff section of ground forces for the U.S. in World War II. She was employed at the Pentagon and as a secretary for ambassadors from China to the U.S. She was invited to the Chinese Embassy, where she was honored for her work. Mrs. Evans also worked for the American Sugar Company in New York City as secretary to the president of the company, with her husband, who opened A. Gardiner Evans Nursery on Merrick Rd. in Massapequa in 1949, and as a real estate broker for Conklin Realty, in Massapequa, which has since gone out of business.

While working at Conklin Realty in December, 1975, she sold the house in Amityville where six members of the DeFeo family were slain to the Lutz family. "My wife was in that house many times before it was sold, and there were no problems. When they [the Lutzs] ran out of the house later and made those claims, she thought they made up a good story," Mr. Evans said facetiously.

The Evans’, with daughter Barbara lived in an apartment atop the Nursery from 1949 to 1965. They then moved to Amityville.

Mrs. Evans was a member of the Amityville Women’s Club. She liked collecting decorative plates, but even more so, she enjoyed setting up her large collection of Charles Dickens’ Christmas houses each year during the holiday season, and had just finished doing so before she died.

She leaves her husband, Andrew; daughter Barbara LaPersonerie of Amityville; grandson Patrick LaPersonerie and his wife Alison of Farmingdale; great grandchildren, Sean, Christian and Brian; and sister Gloria Vandervoort of Amityville. Her sister Myra Larson predeceased her.

Mrs. Evans reposed at the Charles G. Schmitt Funeral Home in Seaford on Thursday, December 21 and a religious service was held there on Friday morning, prior to her burial at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale.

Donations can be made in Mrs. Evans’ name to the Kiwanis Club of Massapequa, P.O. Box 195, Massapequa, NY 11758.