Jean Benanti

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Jean Benanti, 88, of Dongan Hills, who is remembered for her devotion to her family and her keen sense of style, died Thursday in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

Born Jean Termotto in Manhattan, she moved with family to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as a girl and graduated from New Utrecht High School. She later attended Hunter College, Manhattan, where she was a member of the fencing team.

Always impeccably dressed and coiffed, during the 1940s she worked as a sales associate at Macy’s in Herald Square. The highlight of her time there was selling a cart full of beautiful dolls to the singer Kate Smith, famous for her unforgettable rendition of “God Bless America.”

In 1947 she and Ben Benanti married and moved to Stapleton. They settled in Dongan Hills in 1955.

Beginning in the 1970s, Mrs. Benanti was the tumor registrar at the former U.S. Public Health Hospital, later called Bayley Seton Hospital, in Clifton. Known for her work ethic, she retired in the mid-1980s. She then worked part-time at South Shore Eye Care Associates in Dongan Hills, retiring in 2002.

Active in local friendship clubs and community centers, she looked with enthusiasm toward weekly card games with friends, a favorite pastime she had enjoyed for more than 40 years. She also was fond of solving crossword puzzles, crocheting, bowling, and jaunts to Atlantic City. Her trips to Italy and Las Vegas, however, remained definite standouts.

“What she enjoyed most was spending quality time with her children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as with her entire family,” her children said.

Mrs. Benanti was a parishioner of St. Ann’s R.C. Church, Dongan Hills.

Ben, her husband of 26 years, died in 1973.

Surviving are her children, Anne Bozza, Cathy Papp and John Benanti; her brother, Ben Termott; seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be Monday from the Casey-McCallum-Rice South Shore Funeral Home, Great Kills, with a mass at 10 a.m. in St. Ann’s Church. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery, West Brighton.