Five Towns fashion icon Bette Bass dies

Bette Bass, owner of the Bette Bass Boutique for more than 45 years, and a highly respected Five Towns fashion icon died on March 28.

Born in Brooklyn, Bass developed her sense of style and fashion as she worked for fashion houses in the 1940s. She began in the Five Towns in 1954 working for Margaret Stevens at 8 Irving Place in Woodmere.

Eleven years later, Bass purchased the business and renamed it Bette Bass Boutique. She quickly developed a reputation for her fabulous taste in sportswear and after-five attire, dressing and accessorizing the women of the Five Towns, as well as others from as far away as Greenwich, Conn. and Washington, D.C.

Even shoppers in Manhattan with access to exclusive boutiques on Madison Avenue would make their way to Woodmere to purchase a dress from her shop. She built her reputation based on a specialty in personal care and fitting offered to every customer. She dressed thousands of women over the years, including many brides, who cherish their purchases to this day.

At the height of her business, and working alongside her daughter, Patti Siegel, Bass occupied three adjacent stores and employed a staff of 13 sales girls. She set the stage for others; a woman who purchased a dress from Bette Bass Boutique kept it in her closet for many years, as Bass was always way ahead of her time in fashion.

Bass is survived by her husband of 63 years, William Bass, her three daughters, Carol Bass Gursky of Cedarhurst, Dr. Sherry J. Bass of Woodmere and Patti Siegel of Stephentown, NY, two sons-in-law, Robert Gursky and Bruce Siegel, and three grandchildren, Adam Gursky and his wife Michele, Mara Gursky and Keith Siegel.