Rose's family tribute website is at www.gigagram.com - Please visit there, as well. Here is the beginning of our online photo album. You can also visit her obituary at Allen Family Funeral Options, who are handling her arrangements.)
Rose Marie Pesce was born July 8, 1920, in New York City and passed from this earth on June 7, 2008, in Dallas, Texas.
Rose grew up in Manhattan with her large family, which included her parents, Mary and Joseph Veccia, and siblings Angie, Josie, Rachel, Lucy, and Vinny. She spent many summers on her Aunt's farm in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Her experiences on the farm fostered a life-long love of animals and nature, which she passed on to her children. She has one daughter raising goats on a farm in New Jersey and two involved in animal rescue in Texas. Every one of her children has a pet, and some have many more than one!
In her youth, Rose loved to dance in plays at school, and she maintained that love of music and dancing right up to the end. Rose and her her husband, Pat, married in 1943, and they had five children - Antoinette, Mary, Patricia, Andrew and Virginia. Rose and Pat spent many summers taking their children to Coney Island and Bear Mountain in New York, where many cherished memories were created.
Rose's primary focus was always her family, and nothing gave her more joy than her children and grandchildren. As her health declined and she was unable to travel, she looked forward to their phone calls and would light up like a Christmas tree if they came to visit. Rose was surrounded by members of her family at her passing. She received comfort from them as she had given them comfort over the years. Some of that comfort was given through food. Rose loved to cook the foods of her Italian heritage, and she shared that love of cooking with her family. Many of her unique dishes cannot be duplicated, since she never wrote any of the recipes the same way twice. Her children have even tried comparing the various versions to create the "right" version. In many cases, "love" was not the only hidden ingredient!
Another of Rose's passions was fine-gauge cotton crocheting. She made beautiful bedspreads for all of her children, and each one took over a year of almost constant work to finish. There wasn't a pattern she could not master, and her work was truly art. As her vision failed, she was unable to crochet, and it was a crushing blow for her and everyone lucky enough to have been on her gift list.
Rose is survived by her sisters Lucy Veccia and Josephine Collacino, her children Antoinette Malm (and husband Gerard) of Lexington, Kentucky, Mary Strauss (and husband Norman) of Stockton, New Jersey, Patricia Gulino (and husband Jack) of Plano, Texas, Andrew Pesce of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Virginia Gilhooly (and husband Kevin) of Dallas, Texas. She is also survived by her Shih-Tzu daughter, Flower "Pot" Pesce of Dallas.
She is also survived by eleven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband Pasquale "Pat" Pesce of New York, her sisters Angelina Di Meglio and Rachel Gray, her brother Vincent Veccia, and parents Mary Albano Veccia and Giuseppe (Joseph) Veccia. She was also preceded in death by her daughter-in-law Anna Marie Pesce. |