We are sad to announce that Doris Knighton Brandi passed away on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at her home in Queensbury, NY, after a heart attack.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, on August 23, 1933, Doris was adopted by Isabel Bird Knighton and Dr. Willis Sackett Knighton, who raised her in Scarsdale, NY.

As a teenager at Scarsdale High School, Doris met and began dating Bruce Brandi. She then attended and graduated from Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, NY, and the Katharine Gibbs School. After working briefly at Sinclair Oil in New York City, Doris married Bruce on June 19, 1954, at the Wooster School in Danbury, CT. They began married life in Williamstown, MA, where Doris worked in the Art Department at Williams College.

Doris and Bruce settled in Scarsdale in 1959. Doris’s life centered on her four children, but she made time for volunteer work and community service as well. She volunteered at the nursery school at Scarsdale Congregational Church, as a Cub Scout den leader and Girl Scout troop leader, and delivering for Meals on Wheels, all while caring for her family. When she had time for herself, Doris enjoyed gardening, tennis, paddle tennis, hosting holiday parties, and bowling. She and Bruce were bowling champions at the Scarsdale Golf Club. In 1971, the Brandis first visited Point O’Woods on Fire Island, and Doris spent the next 53 summers there - beach combing, volunteering at Thriffany’s, making sandwiches for junior team matches, playing Scrabble and backgammon with any challengers, doing crossword puzzles on the beach with her beloved dog Smudge behind her chair, using her slingshot to launch rocks at deer that dared to walk on the dune near her house, and starting the Wednesday Ladies Luncheons at the Club. She could be seen in the bushes picking beach plums for jelly and blueberries for “Grancakes,” and contracting Lyme disease, for the first time in 1987.

Doris and Bruce were among the original hosts of the annual Beefsteak Dinner at Point O’Woods, at which she was in charge of the “special sauce” for more than four decades. At 113, the Friday night special was beans and dogs.

As her children had families of their own, Doris loved having her grandchildren stay with her for weeks or months at a time during the summer.

After Bruce died in 1995, Doris moved to Vero Beach, FL, where she enjoyed more beach time and tropical gardening. She volunteered at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, the Environmental Learning Center, and as a volunteer ambulance driver. She rode her bike every day until she was 90 years old. In 2023, Doris moved to the Terrace at Highland Meadows in Queensbury, NY. Her main activities there were knitting baby blankets and playing BINGO, at which she was an ace and won many stuffed animals, which she delighted in giving away to her own great grandchildren and to those of her neighbors.

Granny Doris was proud to have 26 descendants, each one represented by a charm on bracelets that she wore every day. She is survived by her 4 children - Timothy (Nancy), Douglas (Lynne), Willis Brandi, and Lynn Brandi Bunis (Al); her 10 grandchildren - Matthew (Lisa Hall), Trish (Tom Krieger), Carolyn (Will Driscoll), Stephen, Dana (David Spangler), Stephanie (Ben Lovell), David (James), and Wesley Brandi; and Gregory (Gabrielle) and Alison Bunis; and her 12 great grandchildren - Kadin Spangler; Madeline, Wyatt, Eloise, and Bennett Lovell; Max and Lucy Driscoll; Benjamin and Kira Brandi; Margaret and Molly Krieger, and Bernard Bunis.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a future date.

Condolences may be sent directly to Baker Funeral Home, 11 Lafayette St., Queensbury, NY 12804, or through www.bakerfuneralhome.com.