Helene Calvanico

Longtime Prince's Bay resident Helene May Calvanico, 82, a retired registered nurse and office manager and the loving matriarch of three generations of family, died Wednesday at home.

Born Helene May Winters in Brooklyn, she graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens.

Mrs. Calvanico summered at Spanish Camp with her family as a teenager. She later moved to Annadale and settled in Prince's Bay 30 years ago.

She earned her nursing degree from Methodist Hospital School of Nursing, Brooklyn.

Mrs. Calvanico worked as a registered nurse for 10 years, first at Methodist Hospital, then as head nurse at the former Lutheran General Hospital, also Brooklyn.

She later worked as an office manager at her husband's engineering/architectural firm, Calvanico Associates in Willowbrook, for 20 years.

Mrs. Calvanico was a member of the Annadale Garden Club and the Seamen's Society for Children and Families, where she spearheaded the Teens with Tots program.

In addition to gardening, she enjoyed needlepoint embroidery, reading and travel.

Mrs. Calvanico loved spending time with her grandchildren whom she referred to as the magnificent seven, and was also known as G.G. (Great Grandy) by her great-grandchildren.

She was a parishioner of Our Lady Help of Christians R.C. Church, Tottenville.

Mrs. Calvanico's son, Robert, died in 1963, and her son, Richard, died in 2006.

Surviving are her husband of 61 years, Alphonse; her sons, Steven and Peter; a brother, Robert Winters; a sister, Diane Sjolin; seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be Friday from the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville, with a mass at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of Help of Christians Church. Arrangements include cremation.

Services: Our Lady Help of Christian's RC Church Friday, December 19, 2014 10:00AM

Visitation: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home Thursday, December 18, 2014 2-4 & 7-9PM

Cemetery: Cremation Will Be Private

Location: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home

Church: Our Lady Help of Christians R.C.Church