Florence Picciotti Obituary

PICCIOTTIFlorence, 89, of Sarasota. She is survived by daughters, Joanna Poppink and Elyce Picciotti; son, Philip Picciotti; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildr-en. Robarts Funeral Home, Sarasota, FL handling arrangements.

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Published by The Record/Herald News on Jun. 23, 2007.

Memories and Condolences
for Florence Picciotti

Sponsored by Joanna Poppink.

3 Entries

Joanna Poppink nee Picciotti

July 3, 2007

Florence Picciotti was born Florence Katz. Her father was Benjamin Katz. Her mother was Ethel Jacobs Katz.

She had two brothers, now deceased:
Edward Katz known as Eddie Katz and Herman Katz known as Hy Katz.

Her husband, Angelo Piccioti, now deceased, was the son of Nicholas Picciotti and Giovanna Disanto Piccioti known as Jenny Picciotti.
Angelo had one brother, now deceased, Frank Picciotti.

I add this family material to help anyone from my family's past to locate this information via an internet search.

Joanna Poppink

June 24, 2007

Florence Picciotti, with her husband Angelo Picciotti, made her home in Bergen County for many years. They lived in Cresskill, Tenafly and Rockleigh

The cities where she resided during her life are:

New York City, NY
Ansonia, CT
New London, CT
Cresskill, NJ
Tenafly, NJ
Rockleigh, NJ
Boca Raton, FL
Sarasota, FL

Joanna Poppink

June 24, 2007

Florence Picciotti is best remembered as a singer, dancer, actress, poet, story teller with a fabulous ability to tell a joke and bring laughter.

In her younger years she was a whistler. Her whistling rivaled the fine tones of a violin. She whistled classics including Chopin and Brahms. When I was a child she lifted her head and whistled to the tops of the trees. When The birds responded she told me she was talking to the birds and listening to what they said.

I never doubted for a moment that my mother could communicate with birds through her whistling.

She lived long through the changes one can imagine from 1917 to 2007: wars, depression, political and social changes in every decade - and style changes. She was always a woman with style and conscientious about her hair, clothes, jewelry

Her father had a crystal receiver set in the living room to pick up static and voices. At the end of her life she played bridge regularly on the internet.

She outlived her parents, Ben and Ethel Katz. She outlived her brothers, Edward (Eddie) and Herman (Hy) Katz.

She was ready to go and would probably be surprised to learn just how many people cared about her, learned from her, were delighted by her. Toward the end, her youngest daughter, Elyce, was her most stalwart companion and support.

My mother loved the sea. When she was too frail to swim but still loved the water, Elyce took her swimming. Elyce connected herself with a rope to my mother and in the water they went. My mother felt the water around her and had the sense of swimming while Elyce protected held her secure.

For me, her love of magic, stories, science fiction reading, pranks and love of knowledge and art contributed greatly, I know, to my attraction to the field of psychology and the study of the human mind and heart.

She read widely in fiction and science. When I came home on breaks from college I felt I had fallen behind and had to read quickly to keep up.

One last note: When my brother and I were young, before my sister was born, we lived in Ansonia, CT. Those were the hard years, financially. It was a small town and we didn't have theater or movies. Radio serials and the library were vital to us.

Her father, my grandfather, Ben, brought us books that people had left behind when they moved out of their apartments in the building where he worked in New York.

We always had books.

Every once in a while, my mom said to Philip and I, "Let's do some poetry. My brother and I rushed to the bookcases in a race to get the "best" poetry books.

The three of us sat in a circle taking turns reading poems of our choice aloud with all the drama we could muster. Philip's favorite
was "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" because it began with "On the 18th of April in '75" and April 18 is his birthday.

My mom read tragedies that made us weep, comic poetry that made us laugh, Vachel Lindsay that made us shudder in awe, and Kipling that roused us to images of gallantry in far off lands. She transported Phil and I to other worlds, other lands, other dimensions. We barely left our little street, yet she gave us a sense of the vastness and wonder of the world.

She was born in New York City, June 23, 1917 and died in Sarasota Florida June 22, 2007, one day before her 90th birthday.

She leaves three children: Elyce, Philip and Joanna. She leaves four grandchildren, Deborah, Michael, Rachel and Ben. She leaves two great grandchldren, Delilah and Hannah.

P.S. Oh yes, she taught her children Shakespeare passages to recite along with nursery rhymes.
I taught my daughter "Ariel's Song"
when she was four.