Beloved Friend Dies, Greenport Community Comes Together to Pay for Funeral

There are certain individuals who become an intrinsic part of the fabric of a community in a small town or village.

Cleo Sellers, who died at midnight on January 12 at Eastern Long Island Hospital, was one of the beloved faces in the Greenport community who has meant so much its residents, a person they turned to get the job done. In recent years, he’s faced health challenges.

And now, the community is coming together to help him, just as he spent his life helping others.

A Go Fund Me page was set up just yesterday to help pay for Sellers’ funeral. This morning, the page had raised about half of its $5,000 goal. But in a outpouring of generosity, the amount rocketed to $5,000 in a minute today, as a single, generous donor pledged the remaining $2,685.

While friends are still searching for family members — Sellers moved north from Texas many years ago — he is greatly loved by his Greenport friends.

“Cleo was not only a friend of ours but a community figure. Not many people can say that they haven’t heard of or seen Cleo working as hard as he did for so many different people. We loved Cleo and he will be missed,” the Go Fund Me page states.

Sellers was known for doing a lifetime of jobs around the village; his industrious nature and affable personality were the stuff of Greenport legend.

Greenport business owner Linda Kessler spoke fondly today of her longtime friend. ”Cleo came into our family’s life in the 80s and never left,” she siad. “He had a work ethic that was impeccable. He never understood how people couldn’t find a job or make a dollar.”

In addition, she said, “His memory was amazing. He didn’t need a Google calendar to meet his commitments. He was generous, kind, trustworthy, and a true friend.”

On a personal note, Kessler said Sellers single-handedly moved her business, “one piece of furniture at a time down Front Street. When I arrived the next day at the store, it had been painted, and the furniture was in place. He was one of a kind, and I’m glad he was in my life and my family’s life.”

Sellers, she said, made a similar impact on generations of village residents. “He was everybody’s everything,” she said. ”If you needed a painter, he painted. If you needed cleaning, he cleaned.”

It was the personal touches that endeared Sellers to so many hearts. One day, Kessler came home and found a lace tablecloth arranged in her dining room. “He said it was pretty, and it should be on my dining room table,” she said.

Sellers had the keys to residents’ homes and hearts, she said, everywhere from “Jamesport to Orient Point.”

When he didn’t have a car years ago, Sellers was a familiar figure on his bicycle, riding to his various jobs. He’d even leave push mowers at each location so all he had to do was pedal to each job site, she said. He’d work all day and then, find time at night to fit in other work commitments.

“Whatever you needed, Cleo was right there,” she said. “He was just an amazing person.”

“He was one of the hardest working people in Greenport,” said Rena Wilhelm.

Funeral arrangements are to be announced once friends have exhausted all efforts to locate his family in Texas, Kessler said. It was Sellers’ wish to be buried in Southold. Other dear friends, such as Aldo Maiorana of Aldo’s, have stepped up to organize the funeral for a man they’ve loved for years.

Just as the community joined forced to help Kenny White, a beloved firefighter who died recently, they are doing the same for Sellers.

“Cleo took care of us for years. Now, as a community, we’re taking care of Cleo,” Kessler said.

Patch photo courtesy of Go Fund Me.