Obituary

Below you will find the obituary that I wrote for my grandmother with input from my family. It will soon appear in the local paper with information about services.

Josephine Antona Mancino, the second youngest of eight children, was born January 14th, 1929 in
Washingtonville, New York. Her parents Josephine Tacchella and Marziano Antona both entered America through Ellis Island in the early 1900s. Josephine graduated from Washingtonville High School in 1946 and settled in nearby Monroe where she married Ralph Mancino (deceased 1991), also a first generation child of Italian immigrants. They were married for over forty years and had four children: Ralph Mancino (Carla Henry), Theresa Brodzik (Bill) , Josephine Papagni (Shabazz Jackson) and Catherine Hutchins (William, deceased), that they raised on the same block that many of Ralph's siblings lived on. She was a devoted grandmother to her five grandchildren, Demian, Matthew, Blair, Devon and Tyler. She also had five great-grandchildren she took great pride in: Dylan, Maggie, Crosby, Samantha and Jack, and many nieces and nephews.  She is survived by her sister Marguerite Re and brother Joseph Antona. She was predeceased by her brother Piero (Peter) Antona; sisters: Bianca Floriano, Louise Lee, Mary Myszelow, Laura Barley, and Theresa Barbieri.

She worked for many years at Highland Telephone Company just steps from her home on Elm Street, retiring in 1987 to care for her husband and play Gin Rummy with her neighbors, Eugene and Antoinette Moran. On summer evenings they enjoyed back yard "cake and coffee" with the very large Elm Street Mancino family and friends. They often spent weekends on Cherry Pie Lane at Bakers Acres on the Jersey Shore, sharing meals and many laughs with the Scherne family. She remarried in 1994 to George Rowe and divided her time between New York and Florida for over a decade.

She was a talented seamstress, a self taught cook and a master at crossword puzzles. She was always
available to talk, except from 12:30-1:30 every week day, when she would draw the curtains and watch "The Young and The Restless".

The family asks in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association.