Designer Suzanne Sekey Loved Visits to Aquinnah

Suzanne Sekey, a prominent New York interior designer, and for decades a summer visitor to the Aquinnah home of her sister, Yvette Eastman, died Jan. 18 in New York city. She was 90.

Miss Sekey had worked with such architects as I.M. Pei, Marcel Breuer, Richard Meier, Harold Leeds and longtime Chilmark resident Don Page. Among sites on which she had worked as a designer were the Paris Theatre in New York, the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Bonier's Retail Store in New York city, the Earth Science Building at MIT in Cambridge, the Resources for Man Pavilion at Expo'67 in Montreal and the Campus Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

The diminutive Miss Sekey was ever popular with those with whom she worked for her wide knowledge of where to get the best buys in fabrics and furniture. "She knew more about where to find the right furniture for a job than anyone else in New York," Mr. Page recalls. "You couldn't ask for anyone better than Sue as a decorator."

Chilmarker Alex Preston, whom she assisted with a guest house, remembers wonderful explorations of little "off-the-wall" New York shops with her as the interior of his guest house developed. "Sue always knew where the fun stuff was," he says.

She was born Oct. 3, 1915 in Budapest, Hungary, a daughter of the late Dr. Arthur Szekely, a government economist and eventually secretary of the treasury of Hungary in World War II, and Margit (Kantor) Szekely. She moved to New York as a child and studied at the Design Laboratory there. Although a lifelong devoted New Yorker with a walk-up apartment on Greenwich Village's Jane street and an office on 11th street, Miss Sekey could forget the city on visits to Aquinnah and simply enjoy Philbin and Squibnocket Beaches, the company of her sister, Mrs. Eastman, and her friends, and Sunday morning games of boule overlooking Squibnocket Pond.

Chilmarker Peggy Freydberg recalls the exquisite design of the Christmas cards Sue would send annually while Lynda Murphy remembers her "as a real fireball." Miss Sekey was also proud of her Hungarian heritage and a few years ago she and Mrs. Eastman made a happy return visit together to Budapest.

In addition to her sister, she is survived by a brother, Dr. Cornelius Clark of Alpine, N.J.; two nephews, Kenneth Clark of Washington. D.C. and Alexander Clark of New York city and two nieces, Pascal Soriano of New York city and Florence Bachoven of Zurich, Switzerland.

A memorial service will be he held in New York city at a time to be announced.