Arwilda Helen Duft

Born Arwilda Biesel in Jamaica, Queens, she also lived in Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood before moving to Ridgewood, Queens, in the 1940s. She settled in Grasmere in 1978.

Remembered as hardworking, Mrs. Duft held various jobs. She was a sales clerk at a Woolworth's until 1941 and a machine assembler during World War II at a defense plant. She then worked as a Merrow machine operator at a knitting mill until 1965, when she became a receptionist at the McCrea Temporary Service in Manhattan. She retired in 1985.

She loved music and was a member of many German singing clubs. She enjoyed traveling and trips with her family and had journeyed to California, Hawaii, Italy and Brazil. She had driven cross-country, and was fond of word puzzles and reading newspapers.

"She worked very hard and enjoyed going to church and spending time with her family very much," said her son in-law, Joseph Abato.

Mrs. Duft was a parishioner of Christ Lutheran Church, Great Kills.

Her husband, John, died in 1976.

Surviving are her daughter, Joan McCrea-Abato; three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

The funeral service will be Friday at 11 a.m. in Christ Lutheran Church. Burial will follow in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn. Arrangements are being handled by the Virginia Funeral Chapel, Dongan Hills.