Hamptons furor over tragic tribute
A Manhattan corporate attorney is leading a group of wealthy Hamptonites who want to tear down a Water Mill road sign honoring a nun killed in a 2012 hitandrun — because, he whines, he’s tired of repeating her depressing tale to guests.
“Every time someone visits, I am forced to recount this tragedy because they ask who Sister Jackie was,” John Carley, a former counsel to rentalcar giant Avis, said in a January letter to Southampton Town officials.
“While I have no doubt Sister Jackie was a wonderful person and deserves to be remembered by those who knew her, her tragic death while visiting us is not an event residents wish to recall.”
Town highways boss Alex Gregor had installed a blue sign that reads “Sister Jackie’s Way” above the normal green street marker last summer to memorialize Sister Jacqueline Walsh, 59, who was killed walking near the Sisters of Mercy convent on Rose Hill Road in July 2012.
“No one has ever been arrested for her death,” Gregor told The Post. “I didn’t want her memory to just vanish. This isn’t about the accident, this is about celebrating her life.”
But Carley — a former senior counsel at Cendant Corp. who is now in private practice — blasts Gregor in his letter for making the unilateral decision.
Carley — whose wife is former NBC4 news anchor Pia Lindstrom and Ingrid Bergman’s eldest daughter — wasn’t the only summering resident irked by the sad reminder.
Town Supervisor Anna ThroneHolst sent out surveys to the 43 residents of Rose Hill Road. Seventeen voted against the sign; two voted to keep it; and two indicated they didn’t care. The rest didn’t respond.
A tally shows the nays included Tao restaurant mogul Marc Packer, developer Andrew Borrok, whiteshoe lawyer Amy CherryAbitbol and filmmaker Robin Craig, wife of British film legend Richard Leacock.
Citing the results, Throne-Holst had a town parks rep take the sign down last month — but Gregor promptly put it back up, where it now remains.
“I guess rich people, especially around here, get annoyed pretty easily,” Gregor said.
Walsh was taking a stroll when she was run over by Carlos Armando IxpecChitay, an illegal immigrant working as a gardener at the nearby home of Andrew Zaro. IxpecChitay is believed to have fled to his native Guatemala with the help of his brother, who served four months in prison for aiding his escape.
Zaro, a debtcollection mogul, did not answer the survey.
In defending the removal, officials told Gregor that street names can’t just be changed without an official resolution.
But Gregor says he isn’t changing the name.
“It’s still Rose Hill Road,” he said. “The street sign is right above it. There are other memorial signs in the town that never had any official action.”