WOODBURY, N.Y. -- Services were held here earlier this month for Ira Waldbaum, 74, who turned the chain of six Brooklyn butter-and-egg stores he inherited from his father in 1949 into a major regional supermarket company. In 1986, Waldbaum sold his holdings to A&P, Montvale, N.J., for a reported $287 million. At the time, it had annual sales of $2 billion at 140 supermarkets in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Waldbaum retired after the sale, dividing his time between homes in Delray Beach, Fla., and Old Westbury, N.Y.
