Veneranda “Anna” Fiore of Southampton, Boca Raton, Florida, and Pignataro, Italy, died on February 8 at her Southampton home, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 85.
Ms. Fiore was born on September 3, 1930, in Pignataro, Italy. Her father, John Longo, returned to the United States, where he had been working, while his wife was pregnant with Ms. Fiore, and so she did not meet him until she was 8 years old.
Ms. Fiore and her mother, Antoinette, came to the United States in 1948, neither of them speaking a word of English. She resumed her education, which began in boarding school in Italy and continued with a tutor after the outbreak of World War II, by studying English at PS 1 in Long Island City and obtaining her high school equivalency diploma at Bryant High School. While working as an office manager during the day at Queens Structure Corporation, a commercial construction company that her father co-founded, Ms. Fiore attended Hunter College at night, studying Italian and French literature. She obtained her degree in 1960 and continued to take courses toward a master’s degree in childhood education.
On June 23, 1962, she married Dr. Americo Saverio Fiore, who she met at a Halloween party. Dr. Fiore, a radiologist, began working in Southampton in January 1968; the rest of the family followed in 1969.
Survivors said Ms. Fiore was unquestionably the matriarch of the Fiore family. She ruled with an iron fist and a wooden spoon. She wooed her children home for visits with her “legendary cooking, storybook holidays and generous spirit.” She was an extremely hard-working woman, who continued to commute to Queens from Southampton for years to work for her father while raising three small children. She loved the opera, the ballet, travel and good food and would happily take off by herself to enjoy these pleasures. Ms. Fiore sometimes referred to herself as “a poor stupid.” Survivors said, she was neither; her ability to quote Dante and recite poetry was only surpassed by her knack for finding the perfect Italian adage for any situation. She was a savvy businesswoman, a devoted wife, a mom with very high standards and a grandmother that threw out all the rules she had for her own kids when it came to her grandchildren.
Ms. Fiore is survived by three children, Maria Fiore of Hamburg, Germany, Antoinette “Tina” Fiore and husband Mark Zebrowski of Garden City, and Dr. Amory Fiore and wife Annette Caruso of Connecticut; and eight grandchildren, Francesca, Anna-Lisa and John-Luca Kutschera, Alexandra “Addie” and Maximilian “Max” Zebrowski and Nicholas, Christopher and Charlie Fiore. She is also survived by a sister, Maria Longo-Swiek of Maryland; two nephews, Michael and Peter Swiek; and a niece, Cristina Swiek and husband Waleed Matin; and many other family members and friends in the United States, Italy and Canada.
Visitation will be held at Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton on Friday, February 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, February 27, at 10 a.m. at the Basilica Parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church in Southampton. Interment of ashes will be at a later date.
Memorial donations may be made to Southampton Hospital, 240 Meeting House Lane, Southampton, NY 11968.
on Feb 15, 2016