Obituary of Vivian Coronato

Vivian Coronato Vivian Coronato lived her 100 years to the fullest, enjoying her large family and doing volunteer work well into her 90s. Coronato, a longtime Huntington resident, died of natural causes on May 11. "She was lively and vivacious," said her youngest son, Richard Coronato, 72, of Huntington. "She was the matriarch of the family and the life of the party." Born in Brooklyn on Jan. 3, 1911, Vivian Coronato graduated from high school and went to business school to become a legal secretary. She raised three sons in Huntington with her husband, Rocco Coronato, who died in 1996. They bought their first home in 1934 on Woodbury Road in Huntington for $2,300. They would live there for 70 years. During World War II, Vivian Coronato was a homemaker during the day and an inspector at Republic Aviation at night. As her children grew, she had jobs with major companies, including New York Telephone and Sears. After her retirement in the 1970s, she spent winters with her husband at Lake Worth, Fla., where she enjoyed dancing, playing shuffleboard and biking. On Long Island, she would go to the Huntington Senior Center at Village Green nearly every day for lunch with friends and bingo. She volunteered for many years at Parish Outreach Trocaire House, a charity of the Church of St. Patrick in Huntington. "She was very social, and she was very involved in the community," said Richard Coronato, said who cared for his mother during her later years. Above all, Vivian Coronato enjoyed spending time with her family, her son said. She left behind 11 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. "Her life was primarily her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, who she constantly talked about to anyone that would listen," Richard Coronato said. A memorial service will be held Sunday at M.A. Connell Funeral Home in Huntington Station from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be offered Monday at the Church of St. Patrick at 9:45 a.m. Burial in the church cemetery follows. She also is survived by sons Rocky Coronato, 76, of Salem, S.C., and Robert Coronato, 74, of Toccoa, Ga.; and sisters Frances Misso, 103, and Providence Giammalvo, 95, both of Amityville.