Corliss Whitney, who made the unlikely transition from Rockette at Radio City Music Hall to operator of a hardware and general store in Fair Harbor that still bares her name, passed away on Dec. 13. She was 83.

Born in 1927 as Corliss Fyfe in Rhode Island, Whitney grew up in Hewlett. She made her stage debut shortly after graduating from Woodmere High School in 1945 at age 17 when the famed dance troupe performed multiple shows each day, seven days a week. She married her husband Frank Whitney in 1952, and they started a family in Rockville Centre.

In the 60s, she founded her shop, Corliss on the Bay, which a spin-off of the family's nearby Pioneer Market—among five shops in Ocean Beach, Saltaire and Kismet—run by the Whitney family.

"She was just beloved, there was nothing like this before," said her oldest son, Jeff, who now runs his mother's shop. "It was like Gilligan's Island, if you needed a corkscrew you were screwed."

He recalled that although she didn't always know the exact name of the hardware she was selling, she made due. "It was a treat to hear her order hardware," he recalled of her amusing phone calls describing various "doohickeys" to wholesalers when it came time to stock up.

Corliss never lost her love of the stage. In the '90s, she formed and choreographed for the Seasoned Steppers, a dance troupe made up of women ages 60 and older. Around the same time, she was also a finalist in the Ms. New York Senior America Pageant.

"She lived her life at 110 miles per hour right up until the moment she passed," said Jeff, adding that the family is still in shock. "It was as if someone had just turned off a switch."

She died at New York University Medical Center in Manhattan less than a month after being hospitalized for seizures. Whitney was cremated and her family held a private ceremony on the Fair Harbor bay front, although Jeff said there may be a toast in her honor this summer.

Her youngest son, Scott, a filmmaker, is editing her memoir, "A Rockette to Remember", and is reportedly planning a documentary about his mother's life.

In addition to Jeff and Scott; Whitney is survived by her husband, a third son, Chip, and six grandchildren. She told her family that instead of a funeral, people should donate to their favorite charities in her honor.

Random acts of kindness also count.

"Most important to me is being nice to people you do not know, the world needs more of that," she wrote in an e-mail to Scott. "Be nice to a stranger and whisper to yourself, 'Corliss, that one was for you.'"