Rita Turiano

Our mother, Rita Turiano (Milletti), 92 years old, passed away on Friday, September 12, 2025. She was born on September 19, 1932 in Yonkers, NY to Enrico and Ada Milletti. She spent the first year of her life in Yonkers before the family returned to the Le Marche region of Italy. She lived there until age 5 before her family once again came to Yonkers. She married Bruno Turiano, July 2, 1955, who preceded her death in 2011. A graduate of Hunter College with a B.A. in Italian/Spanish, she worked as an elementary school teacher for 10 years and then at St. Vincent's Hospital in Harrison as an insurance administrator.
Family was everything to Rita: her six children and her 12 grandchildren. But especially her children. Her spirits lifted when one of her kids was within arm's reach (you often got a pinch on the cheek or a rub on the arm no matter what the age), and exponentially happier as the number moved past one toward max six. Dinners were special (homecooked variety, at least four to five times a week) as were Christmas and Easter mornings.
She loved books and a good story (Hitchcock movies) and a good comedic film (a smile was locked on her face for the entire 1 hr 38 min runtime of Weekend at Bernie's). Her laugh was contagious, so even if you didn't think the catalyst for her glee was funny, you laughed right along. She dabbled in gardening and painting and drawing and knitting. She made many a mean blanket that could ward off the cold in even the draftiest of rooms.
She loved blueberry pie, ice cream, and Mallomars. (The dentist, not so much.)
She could surprise you too, with a knack for picking stocks (Microsoft in the early 1990s hello) and having a spot-on intuition about whether a new friend was bad news or good.
She spoke Italian fluently and rooted for the New York Yankees. She rooted for non-Yankees, but only if they had an Italian last name.
She flew in a propeller airplane to Europe for her honeymoon, her first and only plane ride.
She loved the comfort of home and being home and coming home. That home for the majority of her adult life was 22 Thorne Place in Rye, where she planted flowers and herbs, fed the birds but chased the squirrels away. And most significantly to her, raised six children to whom, one Christmas, gave presents of six t-shirts that read "Mom Likes Me Best."
Rita is survived by her son Anthony, wife Deborah, and their sons, Marc, Matthew, John, and Paul; daughter Linda, her partner Blaise Franciosa, and her daughters Alexandra and Samantha; daughter Lisa, husband Stephen Crovo, and their children Michael, Stephanie, and Victoria; son John, wife Kazue, and their daughter Kira; daughter Angela, husband Greg O'Connor, and their son JB; daughter Cathy, husband Patrick Patullo, and their daughter Julia; brother Mario Milletti and wife Rosemarie; and nine nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends at the Graham Funeral Home on Wednesday September 24, 2025 from 4:00-7:00 PM. Mausoleum Entombment at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, NY on Thursday September 25, 2025 at 9:30 AM.