Mary Minopoli Obituary

Mary Minopoli
February 22, 1936 - December 2, 2023
This skein of yarn has come to its end...Mary Frances (Canevari) Minopoli, 87, died in her home in Trumbull, CT after a long illness on December 2, 2023. Mary was born in Bridgeport, CT to an Austrian immigrant mother, Helene Gruner and her Italian father, Charles Canevari. She attended St Augustine school in Bridgeport in her elementary years and was given the job after school helping the nuns in the nearby convent prepare and clean up their meals, then walking home at night to an apartment with no running hot water. Her kind demeanor and studious nature led her to graduate Central High School with high honors and an award for never missing one day of school from first to twelfth grade. Mary married her only sweetheart Ralph Albert Minopoli when she graduated from St Vincent's Nursing school. Ralph predeceased her two years ago. She is survived by Ralph's siblings: her loving brother-in-law Carlo Minopoli and her sweet sister-in-law Ann (Minopoli) Silva. Carlo was married to Mary's good friend Joan Macciocca, who played matchmaker pairing her friend Mary with her fiancé's brother, Ralph Minopoli, a Korean War soldier stationed in Japan as a pharmacist. Ralph's brother, Carlo served in the Navy at the time and managed to shore up in Japan for a memorable weekend with his brother.
She also leaves a devoted family, her dedicated daughter, Elene Moore (and husband Wayne "Skip" Moore) and two sons, Ralph (Barbara) Minopoli, Jr and Mark (Win) Minopoli who will all miss her dearly.
Bursting with pride and love, Mary had seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, Michael (Clementine) Minopoli and their son Louis, Wade (Stacy) Moore and their daughter Violet and son William, Russell (Natalie) Moore, Dana (Kelly) Walsh and their son Avian, Hayes Moore, Colton Moore, and Keelea Moore.
Mary lived life to the fullest by helping others and making every day count with a fun adventure. She loved to shop and thrift store hunt and had an eye for design and fashion. She was a girl scout leader, a 4 H leader to her club "The Shiny Nichols", a docent at the Beardsley Park Zoo, a RI Master Gardener, a knitting instructor at the library's knitting group, the resident gardener for the Charlestown, RI one room school house garden, a pond watcher for the Salt Pond Coalition, and an avid environmentalist in the Concerned Citizen of RI fight against a nuclear power plant that would have destroyed the Ninigret salt pond. Mary loved her gardens and delighted any guests who came to her home with her culinary creations made from her harvests. She prepared her own homemade pizza with clams she had harvested by taking a canoe with her husband to her favorite clamming spots. She was always baking pies and cookies for all her countless friends and neighbors. She loved to give her time and attention to others, always a helping hand and guiding neighborhood children in loving nature and being a good steward of the land and animals.
After working in the geriatric field of nursing, she retired with Ralph to the cottage they built in Charlestown, RI and enjoyed canoeing to find clams and steamers in the salt pond and foraging for wild mushrooms in the New England forests. Traveling together as a family in a minibus camper, they found educational opportunities to spend stints in UTAH on geology expeditions, Georgia for science odysseys, and New Hampshire for many summers for chemistry learning. They loved to attend the NEACT (New England Chemistry Teachers Association) summer weeks held at various New England campuses. Ralph and Mary were devoted to each other taking care of their gardens and home and many projects with which they busied themselves.
Mary will be missed by her PBB (Phi Beta Bedpan) friends (Pat Butzgo, Ann Surber, Jean Bynak, and Kathy Brennan) that have been doing lunches and constant phone calls since their days at nursing school when they were eighteen. Mary and Jan Moore, friends and neighbors for fifty-five years, were founding members of the Golden Girls Club which took them on many adventures this past year. Mary Frances had a very busy calendar for a senior and stayed active gardening and knitting and attended daily at the Trumbull Senior Center where she met many friends for knitting fun and bingo. Mary, your skein of yarn has run out and you did approach the end calmly, and you definitely did it your way! (In lieu of flowers, donations in Mary's name to www.saltpondscoalition.org)

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Published by Connecticut Post on Dec. 5, 2023.

Memories and Condolences
for Mary Minopoli

Sponsored by Luddy & Peterson's Funeral Home & Crematory.

6 Entries

Lori keough

December 29, 2023

Our sincere condolences to Mary's family.
Ralph and Mary play an important role in my new role at the Salt ponds coalition. We did water testing together

Lori Pontrelli-Flannigan

December 11, 2023

As with Kristen, I was another neighborhood kid in Tockwotten Cove, RI. My parents, Lorraine and Tony, always thought very highly of Mary and Ralph and so did I. I will always remember Mary and Ralph as kind and generous people. Condolences to you, Mark, and the entire Minopoli family. You were blessed with awesome parents.
Lorraine Pontrelli, Tony in spirt and Lori Pontrelli-Flannigan

Kristen LePard

December 8, 2023

I was one of the neighborhood children in Charlestown, RI who benefited from Mary´s many nature lessons and calm and patient demeanor. Sending love and prayers to the family.
Love. Kristen LePard

Mary Minopoli Faulkner

December 8, 2023

Aunt Mary I was so sad to hear of your passing, but know how much you missed sweet Uncle Ralph. I will forever hold dear the summer weekends and weeks I would spend with you both either at your home in Trumbull or RI. There was always a fun project planned from sewing to candle making and many others. Picking wild blueberries and cooking. RIP and say hi to Mom for me!

Anne Lucey Surber R.N. (& "PBB" too)

December 7, 2023

Mary, I love you, I miss you so much already! I've known & loved Mary for over 70 years!! We met when we started at St. Vincent's Nursing School together in 1953 when we were both 17 years old -- and now we're 87! Oh, the fun we had in nurses' training -- I could write a book. We've been close friends forever-- I'll never forget all the great times we had at all those "PBB" lunches & hundreds of times in between. I was thrilled & honored when Mary asked me to be Godmother for her first baby, son Ralph Jr. I look forward to joining her in heaven with the Good Lord -- & fellow PBB member Pat Butzko who welcomed Mary there when she arrived. We all love you, Mary!!! That goes for Jeanne & Kathy too! God Bless You Always.

Gwen Ackley

December 5, 2023

Remembering Mary Minopoli
I met first met Mary about ten years ago at a holiday party at the Moore home. These were festive events with the entire family always with a delicious assortment of good homemade food and stimulating conversation.
Mary and her late husband Ralph lived in Rhode Island near the Charleston shore. Mary loved to read and was a volunteer at the local library. She also enjoyed knitting, and would give her knitted socks, hats, and neck scarves as Christmas gifts to my husband and me. She was an avid gardener who could make any plant bloom. She participated with her husband in volunteer work at the Salt Pond Coalition.
Once, while going to fill the bird feeder, Mary slipped and broke her leg. She had to recover in the Jewish Home for a while. When I visited her, she introduced me to a resident as "someone who was like a second daughter" to her. That meant a lot to me, as I had lost my Mom at a young age and relished having her maternal love.
In recent years, when Mary and Ralph moved into the Moore´s home to live, I got to see Mary more often. Her daughter Elene, Mary and I all enjoyed going to the local church stores to bargain shop. Somehow Mary always found the best deals, often finding a beautiful top for herself for only a dollar. But, she was most adamant that Elene not spend her money buying things, with the exception of her great-granddaughter Violet; where Elene was "allowed" to purchase her pretty clothes.
Afterwards they would join me at my home for a lunch of turkey sausage zucchini and fruit cups. One time I got a surprise phone call from Elene that her Mom had signed me up for a gardening lecture that I knew nothing about. It turned out to be another fun time that we shared together! Of course Mary came home with the best plants, and in keeping with Mary´s frugal nature, Elene was not allowed to buy any gardening books at the lecture.
After Ralph died, Elene asked that I accompany Mary and her on the first trip back to the Rhode Island house. It was an outing that I will always remember as I got to learn more about Mary and her life in a close-knit, coastal community. Afterwards on the ride back to Trumbull, there were rare rainbow halos in the sky around the sun.
As Mary´s health declined, Elene and son-in-law Skip went above and beyond caring for this remarkable woman in their home, and sometimes recently at nursing homes and hospitals. Always they honored Mary´s wishes to be able to stay at their home and give her the highest quality of life possible.
On my last visit with Mary, she was invited to have lunch at Mare Moore´s home on a mild "Indian Summer" day. I helped assist in getting her ready for her luncheon date. I helped her comb and braid her long hair that was amazingly smooth and silky for her age. Mary and Mare shared a lunch at Mare´s lovely home, and afterwards Elene and I joined them for tea in the family room. When we brought Mary back home, she dropped into her bed, tired but very happy with the visit. Elene and I tucked the quilt in around her as I said my goodbyes to Mary.
I will always remember Mary for her kindness, intelligence, and strength of character. Her legacy will continue in the memories of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

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