Carol A. Cannizzaro

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Carol A. Cannizzaro, 71, of Dongan Hills, a retired teacher who was devoted to her family and her faith, died Saturday in Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, Manhattan.

The lifelong Staten Islander was born and raised Carol A. McDonald in Great Kills. She moved to Dongan Hills when she was a teenager and graduated from Tottenville High School.

Mrs. Cannizzaro was an administrative assistant to the CEO of AIG before her children were born, but left the work force to become a full-time mother. When her children were older, she began teaching at the Academy of St. Dorothy, Grasmere, and worked there for 20 years, retiring around 2001.

She loved to spend time at the beach, and especially loved being with her grandchildren, Christopher, Sofia and Brian, family said. She also enjoyed reading and flower gardening.

Mrs. Cannizzaro was an active parishioner of St. Sylvester's R.C. Church, Concord. She taught CCD classes and was a member of the Legion of Mary.

Her son, Firefighter Brian Cannizzaro, died at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

Surviving, along with her grandchildren, are her husband of 53 years, Sam; her sons, Charles and Craig, and her sisters, Barbara Zugar, Patti Wynn and Terri Scaramuzzini.

The funeral will be Wednesday from the Casey McCallum Rice South Shore Funeral Home, Great Kills, with a mass at 11 a.m. in St. Sylvester's Church. Burial will follow in Resurrection Cemetery, Pleasant Plains.