Constance Attanasio

Constance Attanasio, known to everyone as Connie, lived her life as a carnival of office hours, dispensing her always loving and sometimes bare-knuckled advice to anyone who asked for it (and several who didn't) among her large and diverse circle of friends. The firstborn child of Italian immigrants, Albert and Lucy Greco, she was born on July 18, 1928, in what was then the Little Italy of East Harlem, across the street from legendary Rao's restaurant. The family later relocated to Pelham Bay in the Bronx. Connie would often note that she started kindergarten not understanding a single word of English. Later, the entry in her high school yearbook read, "Smiling and blue-eyed is this lass. Always at the head of her class." (She was also voted "Funniest.") She graduated from Hunter College in 1950 with a degree in Spanish, a fluency she employed throughout her life, most notably as a part-time tutor whose demanding style lifted a generation of balky Tenafly High School students from a C to an A. She married Joseph Attanasio in 1954, and they remained married for sixty years, until his death in 2015. An exceptionally loving, fiercely protective, and devoted mother, she raised her four children to honor the values of family, hard work, education, and the Golden Rule. She was also an extraordinary support for her ten grandchildren, who knew they could always go to Connie's for consistent love, a remarkably modern attitude, and plenty of food. Wherever she went, she was known for her loyalty, her no-nonsense manner, her high standards, and most of all, her sharp and lively wit, which brought an endless stream of visitors to her kitchen table. She died early in the morning on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where she lived for the last three decades of her life. She was 96 years old. Until the end, she was smiling, blue-eyed, and still, always, at the head of her class. She is survived by her children - Mark (Deborah), Paul (Amanda), Robert (Lee), and Stacey; her grandchildren - Daniel (Elizabeth Metzger), Michael (Arielle), Annabelle, John (Priscilla), Grace, Adore, Jane, and Theodore, and Joseph and James Gonsalves; her great-grandchildren - Owen, Willow, and Ella; and her brother, Alfred (Anne) Greco. She was predeceased by her brother Anthony (Evelyn) Greco. Donations can be made in memory of Constance Attanasio to the Innovation in Geriatric Medicine program at UCLA Health to support the work of Dr. Brandon Koretz.