Eda Lattanzio

Eda (DeAngelis) Lattanzio, 93 of Milton, formerly of Pocasset and Hyde Park, died peacefully at home on August 6 after spending the day with her family around her. Beloved wife of 67 years of the late Armando Lattanzio, devoted sister of Lena Costello of Yardley, PA and the late Valentina Campia and Hugo DeAngelis. Adoring mother of John and his wife Ellen of Foxboro, Robert and his wife Denise of Lisbon CT, and Nancy and her partner Karen of Milton. Treasured grandmother to Marissa, Elyse and Jonathan, cherished cousin and aunt to many loving nieces and nephews.

Eda was a native of Jamaica Plain where she attended the Mary Curley School and JP High and learned to sew at an early age at the Eliot School. For her first job she took the streetcar to the Goudey Gum factory in Allston where she worked putting sticks of bubblegum into packs of Indian Gum cards. During the war she worked as a seamstress stitching uniforms and coats for the soldiers overseas and for many years she kept the sewing machine buzzing in the basement doing piecework at home for a Boston area garment company. A gentle and shy beauty, Eda married ‘Tony’ at the age of 23, just before he enlisted in the Army. She was the sun around which an entire family orbited, exerting a quietly magnetic hold on relatives and friends alike. She kept her children and grandchildren spellbound with stories of her parents’ immigration from Italy and of life on Rossmore Road during the Depression. After raising her family in Hyde Park, she moved with her husband to Cape Cod to start another rewarding chapter of life. Eda was an avid canasta player, a reader and book club member with an unquenchable curiosity about people and human nature, and a lifelong knitter and crocheter whose handiwork won her awards and admiration. As she approached 70, she began studying oil and watercolor painting at the Cataumet Arts Center and became a member of Pocasset’s renowned Painted Ladies. At age 85 she opened her first email account. A glorious and natural cook with a love of all things Italian, she brought flavor and tradition to her life and to her table. She loved the Cape, fed the hummingbirds, appreciated the simple beauty of the clouds and trees, and cherished family above all else. A soulful and companionable friend, she spent her final years at Fuller Village in Milton, and will be sorely missed by all whose life she touched.

Visiting hours will be held on Monday, August 12 from 4 to 7:30 pm at the Nickerson-Bourne Funeral Home, 40 MacArthur Blvd. in Bourne. A mass will be celebrated at 11 am on Tuesday at St Johns Church at 841 Shore Rd. in Pocasset, followed by burial in the Massachusetts National cemetery. Donations in her memory may be made to Old Colony Hospice, 1 Credit Union Way, Randolph, MA 02368.