Longtime East Massapequa resident and artist Jessie Frances Egan died May 23, 2009 at Peconic Bay Hospital in Riverhead afteran extended illness. She was 81.

Jessie Egan She was born July 31, 1927 in New York City to Harold and Mary K. Egan and later graduated from TheCooper Union School of Art, Hofstra and Columbia universities. For 32 years, she taught art in the Amityville School District and took pride in submitting the best work of her students in an international competition every year.

"She was a very strong personality and family oriented," said her sister, Judith Pagliaro of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. "Jessie just loved to help everyone and was so charitable."

Ms. Egan was a versatile artist whose work ranged from oil portraits to printmaking and ceramics. She studied under social realist painter Robert Gwathmey, one of the first white artists to portray African Americans with dignity. It was Gwathmey, according to her family, that influenced her to teach in an all-black school at a time when segregation was still a fact, if not law. She had also studied ceramics under noted New York artist Peter Voulkos. After her retirement, she pursued an interest in American and European 18th and 19th century furniture at New York University. For many years she was a member of the Doll Study Club of Long Island. In addition to her sister, Judith, Ms. Egan leaves behind her other siblings: John of Farmingville and Catherine DeFeo of Eastport, and 27 nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her brothers Harold and Martin. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. John's Church, Center Moriches on May 28, 2009. She was interred beside her parents at Holy Rood Cemetery, Westbury.