Stephanie Cipriano

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Longtime Dongan Hills resident Stephanie Cipriano, 84, a retired nursing home worker whose loving personality endeared her to many, died Thursday in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

Born Stephanie Tomczyk in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Mrs. Cipriano immigrated to Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1957, and settled in Dongan Hills two years later.

She was a dietary worker at the Carmel Richmond Nursing Home for 19 years, retiring in 1994.

Mrs. Cipriano was a parishioner of St. Ann's R.C. Church, Dongan Hills.

She loved to dance, watch tennis and listen to Opera. Mrs. Cipriano appreciated the voices of The Three Tenors and enjoyed going to the Met. She also loved animals and enjoyed traveling and gambling in Atlantic City.

"She was a happy, caring woman,'' said her daughter, Christine Cipriano. "People loved her for her endearing personality. She's got second families all over the place, because so many people loved her.''

Her husband of 29 years, Eugene Cipriano, died in 1988. She is survived by her daughters, Christine Cipriano and Fran Cipriano, and her brothers, George and Stanley Tomczyk.

The funeral will be Monday, from the Virginia Funeral Chapel, with a Mass at 10 a.m. in St. Ann's Church, both Dongan Hills. Burial will be in Ocean View Cemetery, Oakwood.