Given in Memory of...the history of the chancel table’s silver candlesticks

Looking around the church, there are items of worship that were given as a gift to the church in memory of a departed loved one. Each Sunday, our service begins when we invite the light of Christ into our worship thru the lighting of the candles atop the tall silver candlesticks on the Chancel table. The candlesticks were given in memory of Herbert Garretson (1906-1996) by his wife Elsie and children, Jane Kiembock, Susan Winkler and John Garretson, in 1996. Elsie was famous for impressing everyone by singing in the our chuch choir till she was 95. She passed away in 2013 at age 101. The candlestricks were spotted in a local shop by Pastor Emeritus John Ames and his wife Jillian. After Elsie gave them them her stamp of approval, they were purchased for the church in memory of her husband. Herbert Garretson was an accountant who handled the stock and portfolio concerns of a warehouse buiness near the Brooklyn Navy Yard - Beards, Erie & Basin. The family lived in Malverne, NY and was active in the Grace Luthern Church there. They started spending summer vacations along the bay in Springs in the 1940’s, eventually buying a home on Harbor View Lane. Hard to believe now, in the the Hamptons of today, but at the time they purchased their summer home, it had no running water, an outhouse, and a hand pump in the kitchen sink. The Garretsons retired and moved here fulltime in the 1960’s. They attended the Springs Church, which at the time only held services during the summer months , in the early morning, led by the East Hampton Presbyterian Church minister. Jane Kiembock has fond memories of looking over Accabonac Harbor thru the church windows during the summer days of her childhood. Eventually the Garretson’s became active members of the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, Herbert was a Trustee and Elsie lent her voice to the choir. Fond memories of Herbert and Elsie’s faithful church service, kindness and compassion continue to be memorialized today in our chancel candle sticks. -Hilary O. Malecki

Jane Garretson Kiemboack