Maureen Theresa Lima
Maureen Theresa Lima, formerly known as Maureen Curtin, born August 31, 1940, died October 25, 2020 peacefully with her family by her side.
Maureen epitomized the great American success story.The second daughter of Irish immigrants, Maureen grew up in the Bronx, NY, with her loving four sisters, Margaret (deceased), Eileen, Ann, and Theresa and her deceased brother Dennis.She met her soul mate at 15 attending a Catholic school dance.Maureen and Vincent Lima were married on June 12, 1960.Maureen always knew what she wanted.When she met Vinny, she knew they would create a beautiful home for their children.Maureen and Vinny had four children and 11 grandchildren: Mary Ley (Bill Ley) and daughter Isabella; Joanne Cella (Chris Cella) and children Justine, Christopher, and Clare; Vincent Lima (Beth Lima) and children Rachel, Vincent, Natalie, and Alexandra; Jennifer McLaughlin (Mark Dowden), and children Patrick, Molly, and Anna.
Growing up in the Bronx, Maureen dreamed of her elegant home filled with children, antiques, art, and a kitchen table for family dinners every evening and an abundance of love.She accomplished that and so much more.Maureen became an avid tennis player, a spectacular bridge player, and a wonderful mom.Her love affair with Vinny was without equal and an inspiration to her children.Later in life bridge became her passion.She studied the game and fell in love with its beauty.She played bridge because she loved it.While talented enough to make life master, she didn’t care about the title.She only cared about the love of the game and the camaraderie and friendships it brought.
Maureen was a student in the best sense of the word.She studied and developed deep knowledge for no other reason than the love of it.She introduced her children to great literature, art, and film.If there was one phrase to describe Maureen, it would be simple elegance. She carried herself with great confidence, she was a keen listener and always lent a sympathetic ear.
Maureen will be missed by her husband Vinny, her four children, her cherished 11 grandchildren, all of her friends from bridge, and so many others touched by her kindness and grace.
Maureen lived the American dream.It wasn’t effortless, but she made it appear so.Her grit and vision and unwavering belief and desire to build a beautiful life for her family all came true. She will be sorely missed, remembered always, and cherished forever.
A mass will be held at St. James Church in Pennington, NJ, on Friday, October 30th. Family will be receiving visitors from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. followed by a memorial mass. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Bronchiectasis and NTM Initiative (www.bronchiectasisandntminitiative.com). Arrangements are by the Wilson-Apple Funeral Home, Pennington. Condolences are welcome at www.wilsonapple.com.
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Catherine F. Lloyd
1919-2020
Catherine Fanget Lloyd passed peacefully on Thursday, October 22, 2020, from natural causes. She recently celebrated her 101st birthday.
A longtime resident of Catonsville, Maryland, she was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Wellesley College in 1941.
She was a long-term parishioner of St. Mark in Catonsville where she taught school for eight years and served on the parish council. She was a devoted teacher, both at St. Mark and Catonsville High School, with a lifelong impact on many of her students. She was passionate about travel and playing bridge with friends and family.
She is survived by her three children, Edward Lloyd of South Orange, NJ (Janine Bauer), Pamela Lloyd Coulter of New York, NY (John V. Coulter), and Robert Lloyd of Catonsville, Maryland. She is also survived by three grandchildren, Alex Lloyd, Kimberly Coulter, and Abigail Lloyd, all of New York, NY.
Catherine was predeceased by her beloved husband, Edward Lloyd; her sisters Connie Driver, Rita Price, and Lillian Fanget; and her brother, Louis A. Fanget.
She was interred at St. Paul Cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey, on Tuesday, October 27, 2020. A memorial service will be scheduled at some future date.
In lieu of flowers, her family requests donations be considered in Catherine’s honor to St. Mark School, 26 Melvin Avenue, Catonsville, Maryland 21228.
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Marian Lucille Miles McCredie
Marian Lucille Miles McCredie died on October 23 at the Princeton Medical Center. She was 81.
She was born Marian Lucille Miles on February 20th, 1939 in New York, New York, to George and Lucy Eleanor (Briggs) Miles. She graduated from the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, in 1956, having spent a year abroad at La Chatelaine in St. Blaise, Switzerland. She received a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art from Smith College in 1960.
Marian, known from an early age to her friends and family as Mimsy, succinctly framed her aspirations in her high school yearbook this way: “To really live life.” And so she did. She was presented to society at the Westchester Cotillion in 1956. By then she was already a veteran traveler and had proved herself an accomplished canoeist, swimmer, horseback rider, skier, and mountain climber. She was a lifelong traveler and lover of adventure. She visited places as far flung as India, Norway, Kenya, and the Galapagos and she had crisscrossed North America from the Baja peninsula to the northern woods of Maine. From 1960 to 2019, she spent part of each year on the remote Greek island of Samothrace. In fact, she liked to say that she had been on her way around the world when she stopped in Athens, Greece, and married the archaeologist, James R. McCredie on September 3rd, 1960.
Mimsy and James went on to share a 58-year marriage until his death in 2018. She was an essential partner during his extraordinary career in academia and classical archaeology, putting her legendary organizational skills and social graces to work for the benefit of all. As wife of the Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, she was known for careful planning of parties and events and tactful follow-through that advanced many a student’s career. On a more human level, she simply made sure that everyone felt included. Her ability to connect people came through in every part of her life and across the world. She is remembered fondly as a loyal correspondent, a rememberer of birthdays, and an expert networker long before that became a thing.
Mimsy is survived by and will be forever missed by her son, Miles McCredie, her daughter Meredeth McCredie Winter, son-in-law Mark Winter, grandchildren William and Eleanor Winter and by the many, many friends and acquaintances whose lives she touched.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Marquand Park Foundation in Princeton, on whose board she served for many years, or to the Loon Preservation Committee in memory of her long love of a particular loon-graced lake.
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Helen Gentile
November 15, 1921 – October 20, 2020
Helen Theresa Gentile, 98, passed away peacefully while sleeping at her home at The Avalon in Hillsborough, New Jersey, on the morning of October 20, 2020, a few weeks before her 99th birthday. She had been a longtime resident, with her husband Emile Gentile, of Garden City, New York for 44 years before moving to New Jersey.
Helen was born on November 15, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York, the middle child and only daughter of Alexander and Rose Picozzi (née Adamo) and adoring sister of Matthew Picozzi and Vincent Picozzi, who predeceased her. Helen grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Richmond Hill, Queens, spending happy summers with her close-knit extended Italian-American family at her family’s bungalow in Highland, New York, near New Paltz, a tradition she later continued with her own children. An excellent student, Helen graduated from Richmond Hill High School at 15 and then attended Queens College, along with her older brother Matthew, where she majored in French and Spanish language and literature and was on the diving team and in the badminton and fencing clubs. She was proud to be a member of Queens College’s first graduating class in 1941, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with departmental honors. She took post-graduate courses in foreign language education at Middlebury College and Cornell University and later earned a Masters of Arts degree in Education from City College of New York in 1945.
Following college, Helen embarked on a long and rewarding career as a New York City public school teacher, beginning as a high school French teacher during World War II, where her students were so close in age that more than one of them asked her for a date. She later changed to teaching elementary school, working for many years as a sixth grade and Spanish teacher at P.S. 41 in Bayside, Queens. She was a strict but encouraging teacher, imparting her love of learning and gift for language to her many students over the years, until retiring in 1986.
In 1952, Helen met her future husband, Emile Gentile, on a ski slope in the Poconos when she dropped her skis and he offered to carry one for her. They were engaged four months later, married on December 21, 1952, and continued a lifelong love and partnership for more than 60 years until Emile’s death in 2013.
Helen was a devoted, loving mother of four children. She demanded high standards but never ceasing to do as much as she could for her family. With remarkable energy through most of her life, she managed to teach school, grade papers, plan lessons, and graduation exercises, shop, cook three-course Sunday pasta dinners, be a Cub Scout den mother, clean house and dishes, sew hems, dresses, doll clothes and Halloween costumes, schedule dance and piano lessons, sports activities and doctor visits, host family holidays and birthday parties, attend weekly mass, bake chocolate cakes, zeppoles, honey cakes and cream puffs, and try her hand at crocheting, upholstering furniture, sculpture and painting. In retirement, Helen volunteered at a local Long Island hospital and with the League of Women Voters, played bridge and golf, and enjoyed movie nights, local theater, and traveling with Emile, taking Elderhostel (now Road Scholars) vacations for many years. Helen and Emile especially enjoyed spending the winter months in the Florida sun at their second home at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, where they made many new friends and visited with old friends and family.
Although slowed in her last years, Helen continued to find joy in the beauty of nature and in her children and grandchildren, delighting most recently in her great-grandson. She will be greatly missed by her family and caregivers for her indomitable spirit, humor, and caring concern. Helen is survived by her son, Vincent E. Gentile of Princeton, New Jersey, and his wife Patricia Pickrel, her daughter, Patricia E. Coutu of Warwick, Rhode Island, daughter Laurie J. Gentile, and son-in-law Scott Friedland, of Chappaqua, New York, and daughter Jill T. Gentile, of Highland Park, New Jersey; her grandchildren Andrew V. Gentile and wife KC Arbour, Daniel Gentile, Katherine Coutu Holland and husband Chris Holland, Nicholas Coutu, Julia Friedland, Alexander Friedland and Michael Friedland; and her great-grandson, Henry Gentile. Her son-in-law, Roland J. Coutu, predeceased her.
Her family extends their heartfelt thanks to the staff of Avalon @ Hillsborough, NJ, for the high quality and loving care they provided to their mother, Helen, for the past seven years. A short memorial service for the family was held at The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton, New Jersey. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Saturday, October 24, 2020 at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, Princeton. In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested that donations may be made in Helen’s name to Queens College, www.qc.cuny.edu, or Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, www.alzfdn.org.
Written by: Town Topics Newspaper
