Obituaries

– Compiled by Jim Byrne –

Mary Casino

After close to a century of life in Rye, Mary Casino passed away December 12 at the age of 102.

Mrs. Casino was born November 15, 1906, in Italy, to Anthony Sarsorito and Archangelo Cerrueta. She immigrated with her family as a 5-year-old to the United States.

She married George Casino Sr., a Navy veteran, and they raised their family in Rye.
During World War II, she worked for the Life Savers Corporation in Port Chester. She volunteered at the hospitality shop of United Hospital in Port Chester.
“Even past age 100 her mind was still sharp,” said her daughter, Jeanette Gray.

“Every day she talked with her friends on the phone, and it was one of the reasons for her longevity. She had a great life, was a good mother, and loved her grandkids.”
Mrs. Casino will be remembered as an avid reader by her numerous telephone friends and as a valued member of the Rye Seniors.

She is survived by her two children, Jeanette Gray and her husband Frank of Rye, and George Casino Jr., also of Rye; two grandchildren, Karen Sipe and her husband Robin, and Janis Nelson and her husband Bruce; two great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild.

In addition to her husband of many years, Mrs. Casino was predeceased by three brothers, Daniel, Nicholas, and John Casino.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held December 18 at Resurrection Church.

Chester T. Coddington

Chester T. Coddington, devoted member of the Rye Nature Center, died December 26 in Cleveland, where he had recently moved to be with his family. He was 93 years old.

Mr. Coddington was born November 24, 1915, to Frank and Catherine Bonfield Coddington. He grew up in Bridgeville, N.Y., and graduated from Monticello High School in 1934. He married his high school sweetheart, Shirley, in 1939, and the couple eventually settled in Rye. Mr. Coddington was known as “the Mayor of Vale Place” during his 56-year residence in Rye.

“He was a great handyman,” said his son, Richard. “He grew up during the Depression and his father was a carpenter, so he learned a lot of things along the way. He had a tool for everything and was able to help his neighbors on Vale Place with any problem they had — from the garden to the garage.”

Mr. Coddington began his professional career as a body and fender man at an auto dealership, but because there was no pension plan for that type of labor he became an insurance claims adjuster in 1958. Mr. Coddington worked in the Bronx and Westchester County up until his retirement in 1983.

“He was a volunteer at Rye Nature Center from almost day one,” said his son. “One time they were looking to do work with a bulldozer, and my father volunteered to operate the machinery, that’s the type of guy he was.”

In 1971, Mr. Coddington was named Rye Nature Center’s Conservationist of the Year. He was only the second person to be honored with the award, which was later renamed the Edith G. Read Conservation Award after its first recipient.

Mr. Coddington is survived by his wife of 69 years; two sons, Richard and his wife Cynthia of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Barton of Aptos, Calif.; two grandchildren, Andrew Coddington and his wife Danette, and Christina Raab and her husband Gary; two step-grandsons, David and Matthew Williams; three great-grandchildren; and four step-great-grandchildren.

A brother, Francis, and sister, Dorothy Hindley, predeceased Mr. Coddington.
A memorial service was held January 3 at the Community Unitarian Church in White Plains.

Donations in Mr. Coddington’s memory can be made to Friends of the Rye Nature Center, 873 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY 10580.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick Johnson

Rosemary Fitzpatrick Johnson, wife of the late H. Clay Johnson, former mayor of Rye, passed away December 9 at Putnam County Hospital. She was 93 years old.

Mrs. Johnson was born October 14, 1915, in Harrisburg, Pa., the daughter of James and Florence Fitzpatrick. She served as an ensign in the United States Navy and graduated from Rosemont College in Philadelphia. Mrs. Johnson – or “Roie” as her friends knew her – worked proudly as a volunteer for many years at Port Chester’s United Hospital and was past president of the 21st Twig in Rye. She was also a president of the Rye Garden Club.

“My mother had many close friends in the Rye community,” said Mrs. Johnson’s son, Michael. “As I noted in my church farewell to her, ‘I can't help but think, as I look out over the small group of people here at Resurrection Church, had my mother died 25 years ago, this church would be full to the rafters’. She outlived practically all of her peers and watched as many of her friends’ children moved away. She loved everything about Rye.”

Longtime friends and Rye residents Kenneth and Barbara Rush introduced her to her eventual husband, Mr. Johnson of Canton, Ohio. The two were married in Pennsylvania in 1945 and moved to Rye – where they would reside their entire married life – almost immediately. The couple lived in the “Tower Apartment” at Westchester Country Club while looking for a first home, which they eventually found at 44 Allendale Drive. They later moved to 164 Grandview Avenue, the address they lived at when Mr. Johnson ran for mayor.

“My father was aided in his quest for mayor by my mother, who campaigned vigorously for him,” said their son, Michael Johnson. “When the Democrats obtained information showing that the border between Port Chester and Rye cut through my parents’ bedroom – perhaps making him a Port Chester resident – a debate over my father’s exact sleeping location came into question. All was for naught, as my father won the election!” Mr. Johnson served as Rye’s mayor from 1962 to 1965.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson moved to North Island Drive on Manursing Island as the family grew older and the need for bedrooms diminished. Mrs. Johnson lived there until 1998, when she moved to a condominium at Water’s Edge.

An avid gardener, Mrs. Johnson was famous for remarking, “Isn’t that a lovely garden”, whether it was next door or as far away as Bermuda or Hawaii. “She was always admiring flowers,” said her son.

Mrs. Johnson was predeceased by two children, Peter Johnson of Hawaii and Rye, and Anne Marchetta of Chester, N.Y.; and her sister, Jean of Middletown, Conn.
She is survived by her son Michael, of Mahopac; daughter Cate Meffert of Newport, R.I.; 11 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated December 12 at Church of the Resurrection. Interment followed at St. Mary's Cemetery in Port Chester.
Contributions in Mrs. Johnson’s memory may be made to the Gallagher Adult Home, 517 N. Lake Blvd., Mahopac, NY 10541.

Dorothy Dannenberg Sterling

Dorothy Dannenberg Sterling, author and historian, died December 1 at her home in Wellfleet, Mass. She was the author of more than 35 books for young people and adults on subjects ranging from natural history to significant 19th century women and African-Americans. During the 1950s, Mrs. Sterling broke new ground by writing “Freedom Train: the Story of Harriet Tubman”, the first full-length biography of an African-American woman written for children.

Born in Manhattan November 23, 1913, she attended the Special Opportunity Class for Gifted Children at P.S. 165 in New York, and then the Dalton School. She later attended Wellesley College for two years, returning home to complete her bachelor's degree at Barnard College.

Graduating in 1934, she worked as an editor for Art News and then joined the Federal Writers Project, where she met Philip Sterling, a journalist, whom she married in 1937. They collaborated in rearing two children, writing several books, and participating together in nearly every social and political cause of their time: for fair housing, school integration, civil rights, and environmental preservation; and against atmospheric bomb-testing and the Vietnam war. Their collaboration lasted 52 years, until Mr. Sterling’s death in 1989.

During the more than 25 years she lived in Rye, Mrs. Sterling produced children’s books such as “Sophie and Her Puppies” (1951) and “Billy Goes Exploring” (1953) — photo essays with Myron Ehrenberg.

By 1954, her writings turned to political subjects. She learned through her work in the local NAACP that an African-American boy could not get his hair cut in Rye and observed how each winter brought fire to the slum housing in Port Chester. Mrs. Sterling started to notice that the myriad biographies for children did not include a single one about a black woman. So she researched and wrote “Freedom Train” and convinced her editor at Doubleday to publish it. Next came “Tender Warriors” – another photo essay with Ehrenberg, based on their spring 1957 trip through the South, interviewing children and families who needed the protection of Federal troops to integrate public schools. This book documented the beginning of the end of Jim Crow and formed the basis for “Mary Jane” (1959), her fictional account of a black girl in a newly integrated school.

And from then on, as the Civil Rights Movement surged forward and her children reached adulthood, Mrs. Sterling stayed with her subjects — 19th century American heroes and heroines unrecognized because of race and sometimes gender — writing now for young adults and finally for adults. She produced “Captain of the Planter”, the story of Robert Smalls, a slave who captured a Confederate gunboat and sailed it to the Union side; “The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany 1812-1885”, a black man who managed to get himself admitted to Harvard Medical School — over the protest of his classmates. The black women included Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell, plus lesser-known but powerful voices, in “We are Your Sisters” (1984).

She also admired and wrote of white women abolitionists and suffragists such as Lucretia Mott (1964) and Abby Kelly Foster (1991), who were her moral and spiritual forbearers. What had begun as a lonely exercise ultimately gained Mrs. Sterling recognition, bringing her the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council of Social Studies, an award from the Philadelphia Library Company, another from Harvard’s Department of Afro-American Studies, and an honorary degree from Brown University.

Mrs. Sterling is survived by her children, Peter, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor of Biology and Gender Studies at Brown University; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Nancy A. Thompson

Nancy Thompson, a former Rye resident, died January 3 at the age of 37, after a yearlong battle with cancer.

She was born October 30, 1971 to John L. and Phyllis Alfano. After graduating from Rye High School, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an RN at the College of New Rochelle Nursing School.

She married James R. Thompson, also of Rye, August 27, 1995. After the birth of their first son, they made their home in Patterson, N.Y.

Over the past several years, Mrs. Thompson helped many patients, first as an oncology nurse, and then as a homecare nurse with Hudson VNA.
Mrs. Thompson was a devoted mother, an avid runner and reader, and enjoyed spending time with her children, her husband, and her friends. She was a member of the Larchmont Auxiliary Unit 347 of the American Legion.

Her father said “Nancy was an amazing kid. She loved being a homecare nurse, her children and Jim, whom she met when they were day camp counselors at Rye Rec.” He added, “And she was loved by everyone in return. Friends did everything the last few months, including a 12 Days of Christmas effort.”

Mrs. Thompson is survived by her husband, Jim; her children, Andrew James (9), Sean Michael (6), and Hailey Mae (4); her parents, Phyllis M. and John L. Alfano of Rye; her mother- and father-in-law, Martha and John J. Thompson Jr. of Rye; her sisters, Christine Alfano of Menlo Park, Calif., and Suzanne Alfano of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; her grandmother, May Alfano, her brother-in-law, John J. Thompson III of Patterson; her sister-in-law, Christina Cappiello of Wilmington, N.C.; and many aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and cousins.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held January 8 at Church of the Sacred Heart in Patterson.

Donations in Nancy Thompson’s name may be made to the Patterson Library, Attn: Ms. Patti Haar, P.O. Box 418, Patterson, NY 12563.

John J. Wright

John Joseph Wright, 82, a businessman, engineer and inventor, who held more than a half-dozen U.S. patents, passed away December 18 at Greenwich Hospital. The cause was complications from diabetes.

Mr. Wright was the founder and president of Marine & Industrial Hydraulics, Inc. (MIH), an industry leader in the design and assembly of hydraulic actuators with applications in aeronautical, energy and maritime industries. He developed several innovative models of waterproof hydraulic actuators that are installed in water treatment plants in North America. Mr. Wright traveled the world pursuing business opportunities.

In March 2001, at age 75, he was overseeing the installation of actuators on the Petrobras P-36 — the world's largest offshore oil drilling platform off the coast of Brazil — when an explosion occurred in another area aboard the vessel killing numerous workers and ultimately sinking the rig. He was evacuated by helicopter from the maritime disaster.

Mr. Wright was born February 5, 1926 in Brooklyn, to Catherine and Walter Wright. He graduated from the New York State Maritime Academy at Fort Schuyler in 1946 and served in the US Merchant Marine. He rose from ensign to the rank of Lieutenant JG and was honorably discharged.
He worked as an engineer for Rockwell Manufacturing Co. before founding MIH. He moved the company to Mamaroneck in the early 1980s and continued to work there until his death.

Mr. Wright was a Rye resident for more than 37 years and most recently resided at The Osborn. He was a parishioner at Church of the Resurrection and a member of Coveleigh Club. Mr. Wright was an avid ruffed grouse hunter, sailor, gardener and opera buff.

He was devoted to his family and enjoyed the Christmas season immensely, meticulously decorating an enormous tree each year.

“My father had a great life and a peaceful death with his wife at his bedside, for which we are thankful,” said his son Stephen. “He will be greatly missed by his family and his many friends.”

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Kathleen; his five children, John J. Wright, M.D. and his wife Catherine of Falls Church, Va., Stephen X. Wright and his wife Brooks of Rye, Douglas G. Wright, M.D. and his wife Monica of Havre de Grace, Md., Cathleen Depuy and her husband James of Ridgefield, Conn., and Deirdre K. Wright of New York City; and 12 grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial was offered at Church of the Resurrection December 22.
Memorial contributions in Mr. Wright’s name may be made to The Osborn Rehabilitation Center, The Osborn, c/o Susan Olson, 103 Theall Road, Rye, NY 10580, or to St. Francis Preparatory School, 6100 Francis Lewis Blvd., Fresh Meadows, NY 11365.