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Catherine Voorsanger
Catherine Voorsanger at her lecture at the Stonington Free Library
Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, 51, of New York City and Stonington, died at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York of complications from melanoma on Monday 24 December 2001.
The daughter of Beatrice B. Slater and Robert C Hoover, Mrs Voorsanger was born in 1950 in Oakland CA. She attended the Katherine Delman Burke School and Smith College, from where she received a Bachelor's of Arts degree in art history in 1972. She earned a doctorate degree in art history from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 2001. From 1972 to 1979 Mrs Voorsanger worked as an assistant curator and then curator at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. During this time, she was a protÈgÈe of the San Francisco art critic Alfred Frankenstein.
In 1979 Mrs Voorsanger moved to New York where she became a senior researcher for the painting collection of New York City, during which time she initiated a site review and conservation inspection of approximately 300 19th-century works in public buildings located throughout the city.
Mrs Voorsanger joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983, where she was Associate Curator at the American Wing, where, in 1991, she assumed responsibility for furniture after 1825, including in the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection. Her many activities in the area of post-Federal American decorative arts, including extensive research on John LaFarge's stained glass and the American Aesthetic Movement, allowed her to undo the stereotype of uniformly heavy and dark 19th-century American furniture.
In 1994 she organized, with Alice Cooney Freilinghuysen and Katherine S Howe, an exhibition on the work of the well-known American cabinetmakers entitled "Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age." She had previously overseen research, assisted in object selection and contributed to the catalogues for "In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement" (1987) and "American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School" (1988). Her Dictionary of Architects, Artisans, Artists and Manufacturers in the Aesthetic Movement has become, according to the New York Times, "a standard reference in the field."
With John K Howat, former chairman of the department of decorative arts at the Metropolitan, Mrs Voorsanger organized "Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861". The catalogue for this exhibition won the New York State Historical Society's Henry Allen Moe Award for art-historical writing. This was also the first exhibition catalogue to be presented among the New York Public Library's annual Books to Remember list of 25 noteworthy publications.
Mrs Voorsanger is survived by her husband, Bartholomew of New York and Stonington, her mother of San Rafael CA and father, her sisters Molly de Montmarin of Paris and Whitney Hoover, and brothers Robert C Hoover II, Samuel S Slater, and John S Hoover.
A memorial service in New York City is planned for Friday 11 January 2002 at 11.30 at the Unitarian Church of All Souls,1157 Lexington Avenue, at 80th Street. A Stonington memorial service is planned for the spring.
Donations in Mrs Voorsanger's memory may be made to a new Fellowship Fund established in the Art History Program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York with an emphasis on the decorative arts in the name of Dr Catherine Hoover Voorsanger. Information on this fund is available from Mr Larry Cowen at CUNY at 212-817-7132.
Raymond Robinson
Raymond Robinson, 77, of Stonington, died on Tuesday 18 December 2001 at the Westerly Health Center.
Born in Westerly on 8 May 1924, Mr Robinson was a son of William and Catherine Toon Robinson. He married Marjorie Nado Robinson, who survives him.
Mr Robinson had worked at the Bradford Dyeing Association, where he was a superintendent at the time of his retirement in the 1980s. Mr Robinson was a US Army veteran of World War II, where he served in the Pacific.
In addition to his wife, Mr Robinson is survived by a son, Neil Robinson and a daughter Tracy O'Lari, both of Stonington, and two grandchildren.
Lucy Minucci
Lucy Vincent Minucci, 84, died on Monday 17 December 2001 at the Nutmeg Pavilion in New London, where she had been hospitalized for the past two and a half years.
Born in Stonington on 29 June 1917, she was the daughter of John and Maria Maderia Vincent. She attended local schools and on 23 September 1955 she married Attilio Minucci in Portland.
Mrs Minucci worked for 37 years as an assembler by the Bostich Co of Pawcatuck and East Greenwich RI. She retired in 1975.
Mrs Minucci was a communicant of St Thomas More Church in North Stonington.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by a stepson, Richard Buckley of Gales Ferry; four sisters, Lenia Vincent and Rose Raffo, both of Stonington, Gloria Ross of Belfast ME and Catherine Chapman of Groton; and two brothers, Roger Vincent and Arthur Vincent, both of Westerly. She was predeceased by a brother John and a sister Stella Delicato.
A memorial mass was celebrated on Friday 21 December 2001 at St Thomas More in North Stonington and burial took place at St Mary Cemetery
in Stonington.
Contributions in Mrs Minucci's memory may be made to St Thomas More Church, 87 Mystic Road, North Stonington CT 06359.
Anna Medeiros
Anna Berson Madeiros, 34, of Austin, Texas , died on Sunday 16 December 2001. Born in suburban Atlanta on 13 October 1967, she was the daughter of Renny and Gail Berson of Marietta GA. She graduated from Osborn High School and the University of Georgia, where she earned a degree in international business. Ms Madeiros worked as a quality assurance analyst.
In addition to her parents, Mrs Medeiros is survived by her husband, Michael Medeiros of Austin TX; a daughter, Rebecca Gayle Medeiros of Austin; two sisters, Carolyn Mentel of Stephenson MI and Jennifer Vankirk of Canton GA; her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Melle of Naples FL; her paternal grandfather, Dorothy Berson of Punta Gorda FL; and her mother- and father-in-law, Eve and Arthur Medeiros, of Stonington.
Funeral services were held on 22 December 2001 in Marietta GA. Burial was in Cheatham Hill Memorial Park in Marietta.
Contributions in Mrs Medeiros' memory may be made to the Trust Account for the Benefit of Rebecca Gayle Medeiros, c/o The Savings Institute, 530 Stonington Road, Suite 101, Stonington CT 06378.
Susan Stillman
Susan L. D'Amico Stillman, 43, of Westerly and formerly of Stonington Borough, died Sunday 16 December 2001 at home.
Born on April 24, 1958, in Westerly, she was the daughter of Marie DelVescio Painter of Virginia Beach, Va., and the late William D'Amico. She attended Stonington High School, where she won the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
In addition to her mother, she is survived by her fiancÈ, Eric Harrington of Westerly; a daughter, Alaina Stillman of Groton; three brothers, William D'Amico of Middlebury, Steven D'Amico of Bolton, and Clifford D'Amico of Westbrook; and two sisters, Maria Hogan of Virginia Beach, Va., and Denise Gengarella of Westerly.
A funeral service was held on Wednesday 19 December 2001 in Westerly
Patronella Squadrito
Patronella “Pat” Swizdun Squadrito, 96, of Mystic, formerly of Stonington Borough, died Friday 30 November 2001 at the Mary Elizabeth Nursing Center, where she had been admitted on Wednesday.
Born on 25 August 1905, in Lithuania, she was the daughter of the late Frank S. and Anna Pocis Swizdun. Mrs. Squadrito came to the United States in 1913. She was a graduate of Stonington High School, when it was in Stonington Village, and St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in 1928.
She married Cornelius Squadrito on 10 October 1932, at St Patrick Church in Mystic. Mr Squadrito died in 1976. Mrs Squadrito worked as a registered nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford and she. worked with Miss Sliney in Stonington, to develop the Stonington Visiting Nurse Association. She had also been an active member of the Borough School P.T.A.
Mrs Squadrito was a communicant of St Mary Church in Stonington Borough. She is survived by a son, Neal Squadrito of Mystic; a daughter, Barbara Squadrito of Mystic; a brother, Frank J. Swizdun of Mystic; and a sister, Ann S. McKinney of St Clare Shores MI.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Monday 3 December 2001 at 10 am at St. Mary Church in Stonington and burial took place in St. Mary Cemetery.
Lucy Despard
Lucy Brooke Edwards Despard, 73, of New York and Stonington, died Thursday 29 November 2001 at her house in Stonington.
The daughter of Edward M. and Delia Brown Edwards, Mrs Despard was born on 29 December 1927, in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania . She married Clement Lyndon Despard on 1 September 1974 in New York City.
Mrs Despard was a book editor for 17 years for Foreign Affairs Magazine, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York City. She retired in 1993.
She was a member of the Wadawanuck Club in Stonington and a board member of the Arthur Penn Foundation Book Awards.
Mrs. Despard had an avid interest in literature, poetry and gardening.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by a brother, Timothy Edwards, of Pennsylvania .
The funeral service and burial are private.
Miranda DeKay writes: I remember Lucy as always youthful, always funny, always charming, and never boring...plus she was beautiful. She lived her way, into what we used to call old age ...died at home ...can't beat that. May she rest in peace.
Ned Davies writes: Faithful readers of The Stonington Intelligencer will recognize the frequent byline of Lucy Despard under the headings of Quizzes for the Over-Educated and in several book reviews in The Stonington Intelligencer Book Reviews & Literary News. In both of these areas of the web site you can get a sense of who Lucy Despard was: clipped, a bit acid where necessary, challenging and, most of all, fiercely committed to literature and to the life of the mind. A voracious reader of The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Review of Books, Mrs Despard, whose living room coffee table in Stonington was always piled with new hardcover fiction and non-fiction releases, had a passion for good, versus acceptable, writing that obliged her, on several occasions, to question my own syntax and suggest a clearer or more appropriate word or phrase in my own writing. I always agreed because she was always right. In addition to her editorial expertise, her opinions on people, places and things, including her many years in Stonington, were convincing without being condescending, prefaced as they often were by "oh, that was so long before your time here" and a dramatic puff on the ever-present cigarette. I cannot recall at what exact moment our friendship began, but I am grateful to her for her dedicated support of The Intelligencer (which she nevertheless wished to see in a printed-paper format!), for her unshakable belief in the worthiness of using one's brain, and for the independence of her own mind.
Luigi Pellegrino
Luigi D. “Lou” Pellegrino, 72, of Stonington, died Thursday 29 November 2001 at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London. He was born on June 2, 1929, in Stonington, the son of the Luigi and Anna Benincasa Pellegrino. He married Blanche Jerabek of Stamford, on 12 October 1957, in Pound Ridge, NY. Mr Pellegrino graduated from Stonington High School in 1947. He attended the University of Connecticut, and Chillicothe Business College in Missouri. He was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War, stationed in Japan with the Intelligence Unit. He also served at Langley Field in Virginia.
For many years, Mr. Pellegrino was a sales representative for food brokers, both retail and wholesale. He was a former member of the Mystic Lions Club, and a member of the Knights of the Grip, a sales organization.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Jay Pellegrino of Stonington; and two sisters, Pasqualina “Pat” Reale of Pawcatuck, and Gabriella Carrity of East Haven.
Burial was in Elm Grove Cemetery.
Memorial contributions in Mr Pellegrino's memory may be made to the Community Cancer Center Development Fund, c/o Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, 365 Montauk Ave., New London CT 06320.
