Rose Colasanto

1924 - 2022

Rose Antonette Colasanto (Famiglietti), beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, died peacefully the evening of December 24, 2022, at her daughter's home in Boston, Massachusetts, in the embrace of her son Tom and daughter Diane. She was an inspiration to all who knew her. At 98 years young, she lived an active, full, and independent life. She was a talented oil painter and seamstress, an avid and competitive player of word games, a renowned home cook, and a warm and generous presence in the lives of her family members, friends, and acquaintances.

Rose was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on January 13, 1924, and grew up in nearby Oakville. She was the oldest of four children of Giuseppe and Immacolata (Greco) Famiglietti, immigrants from the tiny town of Torella dei Lombardi near Avellino, Italy. She graduated from Watertown High School in the class of 1942 and soon after found a job in the defense industry as an inspector of precision gun parts for the Navy Department, a job she loved.

At the same time, Rose started a wartime correspondence with a man she had never met, Gaetano (Tom) Colasanto, who was the brother of her sister's best friend. They married in 1947, soon moved to Hartford Connecticut, and had two children, Diane in 1951 and Tom in 1954.

Rose's passion was dressmaking. Throughout high school she worked in the afternoons for a pair of sisters who owned a lingerie business, making complex and delicate garments. Later, she tailored wedding dresses in the bridal department at Steiger's Department Store in Hartford. Childrearing and later jobs in bookkeeping and catering put a pause on her sewing career, but in the 1970s Rose launched her own dressmaking business.

Rose remained in Hartford after the 1997 death of her husband until 2008 when she moved, at age 84, to Chevy Chase Maryland to be closer to her daughter. She calmly met the challenge of the move, and with her enduring sense of optimism, Rose created a new chapter with close friends and new interests. She became an oil painter, showing her work in local art shows. She demonstrated the same flexibility, optimism, and friendliness when, at age 93, she moved with her daughter to Boston.

Rose is survived by her two children, her daughter-in-law Mary-Alice Colasanto, her grandsons Nicholas Cohn and Jason Craig, and her great-grandchildren Adrian, Marion Rose, and Louise Cohn, and Abby and Hailey Craig.

A memorial celebration of Rose will take place on January 13 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Those interested in attending should contact Diane for details (dcolasanto@aol.com). Donations in honor of Rose can be made to support the Employee Emergency Assistance Fund at Youville House, the assisted living facility where she lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

https://www.youvilleassistedliving.org/ways-to-give/donate-youville-house/