Blanca Selleck

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Blanca Sofia Selleck, 82, of Pleasant Plains, a widely traveled, multilingual woman who became computer-literate in her late 70s, died Saturday in Carmel Richmond Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Dongan Hills.


The former Blanca Munoz was born in Bogota, Colombia. She came to the United States as a teenager, enrolled at Southern Seminary in Lexington, Va.


Over the next 25 years, Mrs. Selleck, who spoke six languages, spent time on three continents, living in Brazil, Geneva, Switzerland, and Bremen, Germany, as well as in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Chicago, and working as a secretary. She settled in Pleasant Plains in 1975.


She met her future husband, George, aboard a Staten Island ferryboat. The couple wed in 1976.


She acquired computer skills a few years ago in order to write her memoirs. She enjoyed cooking, arts and crafts, and was fond of entertaining, and being entertained by family and friends.


Mrs. Selleck was a parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle R.C. Church, Pleasant Plains.


"She cherished her time with her grandchildren, David, Gabriela and Emma," said her daughter, Elena Coffee.


Along with George, her husband of 36 years, her daughter, Elena, and her grandchildren, surviving are her daughter, Laura Silk; three brothers, Alfonso, Guillermo and Eduardo, and five sisters, Margoth, Gilma, Laura, Mercedes and Cecilia.


Arrangements, including cremation, are being handled by the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville.

Services: St. Thomas the Apostle RC Church--To be scheduled at a later time

Visitation: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home Wednesday, May 23,2012 2-4 & 7-9

Cemetery: Cremation Will Be Private

Location: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home

Church: St. Thomas The Apostle RC Church