Irene Taranto

Irene Taranto, 83, a native Staten Islander who grew up in England but returned to the Island to help her family after a great loss, died Monday at her Tottenville home, after a long illness and complications of Parkinson's disease.

Born Irene Oribin in Mariners Harbor, she moved to England as a girl in 1933, but returned to the United States aboard the Queen Mary in 1952 when her sister, Christina, died and left two children. She moved into the Grant City home of her sister to raise her nephew and niece, Dana and Ann, and help her brother-in law, Barney Taranto.

She later married Barney Taranto and the couple had six more children in a marriage that lasted for 53 years, until her husband's death in 2005.

My mom was a kind and loving person who believed that it would be better keeping the family together under one roof, said her daughter, Eve Taranto, and that's how we all grew up together.

In addition to running a household, Mrs. Taranto worked for 20 years as a secretary at the Taranto Construction Company, developed by Barney Taranto. She had attended secondary school in England, but continued her education later in life with studies in creative writing at Wagner College, Grymes Hill.

Her door was always open to neighbors and anyone else, said her daughter, Fay McManus. She was always ready to entertain you, whether it was in a game of Scrabble, table tennis or just talking sports. Family members were also taught to be excellent swimmers by the matriarch.

An avid sports fan, she longed to meet her idol, Joe Namath of the New York Jets, with whom she shared a birth date. She had her wish come true when she was taken to a March of Dimes Celebrity Golf Outing at Bethpage Golf Course in 2009. She not only met Namath, but had a photo taken with the star and had it proudly hanging in her living room.

Mrs. Taranto was a member of the Richmond Ever-Green Garden Club.

She was a deacon in Oakwood Heights Community Church.

Preceding her in death, along with her husband, Barney, were her son, Dana, in 2009, and her son, Brian, in 2012.

Surviving, along with her daughters, Ann, Eve and Fay, are her daughter, Gina Afflitto;her sons, Cris and Zane; her sister, Margie Birmingham; 22 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

The funeral service will be Thursday at 10 a.m. in Oakwood Heights Community Church. Burial will follow in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp. Arrangements are being handled by the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville.

Services: Oakwood Heights Community Church Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:00AM

Visitation: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home Tuesday, March 4, 2014 7-9PM & Wednesday, March 5, 2014 2-4 & 7-9PM

Cemetery: Moravian Cemetery

Location: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home

Church: OAKWOOD HEIGHTS COMMUNITY CHURH