Sylvaine Camille Neves

She was born in 1933 in Paris, France to Eugenie Augustine Perrodin, of Bourg-en-Bresse and Auguste Louis Rouy of Le Puy-en-Velay. During WW2, she was sent to the south of France for her safety and spent her childhood in Vence. She followed her parents to the United States in 1950 to attend Good Counsel College in White Plains. There she received her bachelor’s degree and then attended Fordham University where she earned her master's in mathematics.

In 1955, she met her husband, Alcino Neves in his Portuguese family’s Greenwich Village restaurant, the Blue Mill Tavern. Together, they raised three children and worked together until they closed the restaurant in 1991. She then joined the New York office of the French bank, Credit Industriel et Commercial, until she retired in 1999. She and Alcino moved to Florida in 2000 to be close to children, and grandchildren.

She nurtured her passion for writing in the 1980’s by taking classes at the New School, and had essays published in the New York Times, Newsday and the Washington Post. At age 90, Passager Journal published her short story inspired by the strong women she had met over the years while visiting her husband’s family in Portugal. Her memoir of her childhood in Vence, “Zouky: A Child Left Behind in Occupied France” is available on blurb.com.

In every phase of her life, Sylvaine brightened the days of those around her with an infectious smile, subtle French accent and quick sense of humor.

She is preceded in death by her husband Alcino, and is survived by her children, Susan Neves (Ian Campbell), Karen Shebek (Peter), and David Neves (Brigitte), as well as her grandchildren Elyse Neves, Laura Neves, Nicholas Shebek (Caroline) and Julia Shebek.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Central Park Conservancy, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.