Ethel M. Hausrath (1896-1980), the only daughter of Captain Stephen Austin and Sarah Turner Austin, was a woman of persevering and independent spirit who worked in the women's wear business until well into her 70's and died while living alone in her own house when she was 83.
     Born September 20, 1896, she was brought up by her Aunt Elizabeth Austin after her mother died when she was but six years old. she was educated locally and later attended business school in Brooklyn. It was while commuting on the Long Island Rail Road that she met her future husband, Allan C. Hausrath of Central Islip. He, who had studied accountancy, was then working in New York City, commuting daily.
     They married in 1916 and lived for a time in the large new house that Melvin and Elizabeth Austin had built on South Great Neck Road. During World War I the Husband was employed by the American Red Cross and was sent to Washington, D. C. She accompanied him there. By this time they had one son, Ralph Allan, born Jan. 9, 1918. When the war ended, they returned to Long Island and soon bought a house on Austin Place, Copiague from Birdsall Austin. Ethel later accompanied her husband to Chicago, Il, Newark, NJ, and to Providence, RI where his work as a department store controller took him. Meanwhile they had a second son, Gordon Lewis Hausrath, born June 14, 1924.
     Returning to Long Island, where they still owned the Austin Place house, Ethel and her husband established a small dress shop about 1936 in the Village of Amityville. Known as the Park Avenue Shop, it was located on that street opposite the Village Triangle. The store flourished during the was and for some time afterwards. Ethel was the proprietor until it closed in 1956, an event brought about after her husband suffered a serious heart attack during a period of business decline in the village as a result of the new shopping center competition of the postwar period. She then went to work in a store in one of the new Massapequa shipping centers and remained in that job until well into her 70's. After the closing of the Park Avenue Shop, her Husband went to work for Abilities, Inc., a Nassau firm that employed the disabled, as a cost analyst. later, he worked for the Nassau County Office for the Aging, retiring when he was 80. He died a year later. Ethel continued to live at the Austin Place address until her death, which occurred when she was 83. By this time, she had five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 
     A woman who always dressed stylishly, she was quite extrovertive and always involved until her final illness. She was fond of recalling family history and had a very good memory, sometimes recalling events from the days when she had spent summers at her father's Life Saving Station "on the beach" when she was a small child.

More About Ethel Mae Austin:
Census 1: 1930, Irvington Town, Essex County, New Jersey.
Census 2: 1900, Babylon, Suffolk Co., LI, New York.
Census 3: 1910, Babylon, Suffolk Co., LI, New York.
Census 4: 1920, Babylon, Suffolk Co., LI, New York.