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BORN
1914
DIED
2020
FUNERAL HOME
Estelle Celoni Obituary
Estelle (Stella) Rose Celoni passed away peacefully on April 1, 2020 in Pasadena, California, age 105, daughter of Guiseppina and Antonio Acito, sister of Madeline Squeglia, Rose Hillman, and Gabriel and Joseph Acito, born November 2, 1914 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Estelle became a cosmetologist and owned and operated Victory Beauty Salon until she moved to Los Angeles and met James Celoni. They were happily married 23 years, until James entered eternal rest. Estelle spent her last 12 years with her son, also James, his wife Bernardine, and their daughter Lucy, in Eagle Rock.
Even through her cognitive and physical decline, she prayed fervently, loved to sing, and sometimes danced in her walker. She will be laid to rest beside her husband James at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Once restrictions due to COVID-19 are lifted, we will celebrate her life at a Memorial Mass at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Cañada Flintridge. Now she experiences what she sang, "There's no place like home."
Memories and Condolences
for Estelle Celoni
4 Entries
Fr. Jim Gehl
August 27, 2020
God bless Stella Celoni! I will always thank the Lord for her, her great faith in God, her wonderful smile and positive attitude and her prayerful support while I was pastor of St. Bede's. To Jim, Bernadine and Lucy, please know of my prayer for you and especially that our gracious God will gift you with great consolation. After 105 years, she was surely ready to see her God face to face! We celebrate that!
Sandra Draper Homicz
August 25, 2020
A few words are not really enough to honor the sweetness of my cousin, Estelle Rose Acito Celoni. This lovely lady -- who might have appeared small and fragile – was a model of determination, internal strength, deep kindness, and high principles beneath her quiet surface. She had a bright mind for learning, gifted hands for crafts and sewing, and an open heart for those she loved.
When Estelle was a young woman, she came from Connecticut to California and became a presence in my life for the next three-quarters of a century. A cousin, a friend, a second mother – someone who loved seeing people have a good time, someone who offered help whenever you asked.
She was my mother’s cousin, both named Estelle and both the daughters of Acito brothers who emigrated from Italy to America during the early 1900s. The two Estelles lived in New Haven, just blocks apart, attended the same schools, enjoying the same huge Italian parties and meals together all as one family.
In the mid-1940s when Estelle Rose Acito came to California, she lived with us for a while. And then she met James Paul Celoni, a man who brought laughter and good fun to all of us. As a couple, the Celonis were a delight. Jim always had a good word for everyone, and so did Estelle. They lived in a tiny two room cottage on Edgehill Drive in Los Angeles for several years until their son Jimmy was born, then bought their first and only house on Cadison Avenue in Torrance, where Estelle lived well into her 90s long after her dear husband Jim passed away. The Celonis were famous for hosting themed parties, like their “Lasagna Luau” every summer. They often wore matching clothes that Estelle would sew, especially Hawaiian shirts in all colors.
Estelle made sure that her son made good use of his talents in music and his gifted mind for science, math, and technology. He was always an honor student, making Estelle so proud when he graduated from Cal Tech. No matter what Jim decided to do, she supported his decisions with a mother’s love beyond all imagining.
Throughout my life, I considered Estelle a second mom. She held my hand through teenage ups and downs. She gave me my first home permanent when the “Toni” was all the rage in hair curling. She cut my hair, and my friends’ hair, and my grandma and aunt’s hair, and my mom’s hair during the 1940s and 50s when we all lived near each other in Los Angeles. She remembered every birthday with a card and $5 enclosure from the time I was a kid until way after I was married, and then did the same for my own children until just a few years ago when we joked they were in their 40s and 50s now and she should donate the $5 at church in their names. No matter when or where, she expressed sincere interest in what my husband and I were doing, where we traveled, the progress of our children. I bet she did the same for so many of you, too. Her goodness extended a long long way.
One beautiful thing Estelle did for me, among many beautiful things, is that she made my wedding dress in 1966. It was a confection of organza and delicate beaded flowers, every stitch sewn by hand. I wore it happily, and so did my friend Joanna. Recently, Joanna wore it again on her 50th wedding anniversary, and on my 50th anniversary I had the flowers placed on souvenir organza handkerchiefs for each of my 7 grandchildren and for Estelle’s granddaughter Lucy as a remembrance of time gone by, “something old” that they might keep for sentimental sake.
If a life is measured in love and smiles, then Estelle’s ladder already reaches to Heaven. She is surely there, holding the hand of her beloved James Paul Celoni. A match made in Heaven, now reunited.
I’ll end the way Estelle always ended her notes and cards – with “Love and Prayers” for the unforgettable woman we honor today.
--Sandra Draper Homicz
Victoria Ibric
August 23, 2020
Dear Estelle: I cannot believe that you left your loving son, Jim and daughter in law, Bernardine and granddaughter, Lucy! I believe that you decided to go on 1st of April, so nobody will believe that you are gone! It was a joke! Wasn’t it? We will all miss you but we will keep you in our hearts forever, sweet lady Estella! My Christmas party will not be the same without you! Light and love to you on your new journey! Victoria Ibric and Andrew Peterson
Silvia Hernandez
April 14, 2020
It was a pleasure to have met you! Estelle,
Please say hi to my Mamita in heaven as well and give JESUS a geat big hug from me :)
May the choirs of Angels, come to greet you, may they lead you to paradise!.....
Silvia Hernandez (Acc family with your son Jim)
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