Grace (Napolitano) Mangano
Born January 5, 1925 in Mt. Vernon, New York, to Italian immigrants, Grace Napolitano was the youngest in her family and the first to attend college. She majored in Spanish at the College of New Rochelle, received a scholarship to a program at the University of Havana in Cuba and attained a Master of Arts from Columbia University in New York. Grace was a teacher at Anne Hutchinson School in Eastchester and later taught religious education at St. Ursula School in Mt. Vernon.
She met the love of her life, Anthony Mangano, at a church dance and they retained a love of music and dancing throughout their life together. Married 57 years, they had four children and five grandchildren. Sustained by a shared faith, Grace and Tony were constant supports to each other through all the changes and challenges that life presented.
Grace influenced many with her sweet spirit, strong faith, love of family, natural teaching ability and her genuine kindness and interest in others. She was also known for her delectable cooking and baking.
She died peacefully on March 8, 2016. Part of Grace’s enduring legacy was to make things beautiful, to sweeten life, to do things with love and to be an encouraging presence to others.
