Cynthia S. Rossi

A native of Wethersfield, CT she was preceded in death by her parents Alvan J. Smith and Eleanor Elmer Smith, husband Earl Raymond Rossi, and brother Alvan "Jim" J. Smith, Jr. Beloved mother and cherished grandmother, she is survived by her son Steven and daughter-in-law Mary Lynn Hyde, La Jolla, CA & New Orleans, LA, son Mark and daughter-in-law Terry Lund Rossi, grandson Lucas Rossi and granddaughter Maisie Rossi, all of Minneapolis, MN, daughter Tonia and son-in-law Arthur Reyes, Whittier, CA, sister Susan Smith, Wethersfield, CT, sister-in-law Joan Smith Yackow, Arlington, VA, and her four children, Eleanor Smith, Marietta Smith Swain, Margaret Smith, and Alvan James Smith III.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a visitation at Whites Funeral Home 9903 E. Flower Street, Bellflower, CA at 11am Saturday June 23rd, followed by a brief funeral service beginning at noon. Interment will take place at Rose Hills Cemetery, Whittier, CA after the service. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles Chapter.

Cindy was a lifelong gardener and lover of plants. Since1996, she volunteered in the garden of Rancho Los Cerritos, Long Beach, CA, logging over 1000 hours. As a history buff, avid genealogist and cemetery connoisseur, she was an active member in the Whittier Genealogical Society, the Connecticut Historical Society, and the New England Genealogical Society. Quilting and knitting were also hobbies. These interests evolved into making blankets for hospitalized children, as well as hats and scarves for our overseas military, through an organization known as the Binky Patrol. Cindy also had a great interest and fondness for travel, which, fueled by innate curiosity, led her to a goodly number of sojourns in the states, and as circumstances allowed, abroad.

When Cindy graduated from Wethersfield H.S. in 1945, her Senior Yearbook praised that "Her ways . . . are the ways of pleasantness.” She remained in touch with many of her classmates, returning frequently for class reunions.

Soon after graduating from high school, she was wooed by and wed to a dashing young U.S. Navy submariner from Long Beach, California, Earl Raymond Rossi. Moving west to California with the love of her life, Cindy and Earl soon settled at what was to be their lifetime home on Fidler Ave in Bellflower, California where they started and raised their family. Even in her busy life as wife and homemaker, Cindy was able to assist Earl in the start up and day-to-day operations of The Rossi Company, Inc., a busy residential countertop fabrication and installation business. Woven into all this activity, Cindy made time to "mother" an assortment of family cats and dogs, all of which were the loving benefactors of her kind and gentle ways.

She finished her education at Cerritos Community College in 1975, simultaneously raising 3 children and continuing to work full time. She spent twenty-two and a half years as a social worker for the County of Los Angeles, retiring in 1990.

And as if this matrix of her life were not complex enough, she would routinely don her first mate's cap to cook and crew aboard the family yacht MOONGLOW, in support of Earl's, and ultimately the family's, love of sailing and racing across the Pacific Ocean.

The loss of our mother, friend, and family historian is profound; she will be sorely missed.