Edna Josephine Pignataro

Our beloved Mama Pearl, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother Gaggee, Aunt Edna, and best friend, left this earth peacefully on February 7, 2024, just a few weeks before her 99th birthday. She was born at home in Westerly, Rhode Island on March 14, 1925, to Ellen Lind Pasetti and Joseph Joshua Pasetti and grew up there on the Post Road with her cherished brother Earl. Edna graduated from Westerly High School and went immediately to work as a Clerk-Stenographer at the Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, Rhode Island. She bought her mother a pretty pink ring with her first paycheck and her life of giving to and loving others began. Edna spent her childhood surrounded and loved by her Swedish cousins, aunts and uncles from Collinsville, Connecticut. In 1946, she was introduced to the love of her life, James R. Pignataro, also of Westerly, Rhode Island, and a grand wedding was held in her parents yard on August 30, 1947, memorialized by a treasured black and white movie. Together, Edna and Jim left on a honeymoon in a borrowed car and began a full life of love and laughter that was celebrated every year until Jim’s death in 2010.

Jim and Edna first moved to St. Inigoes, Maryland where they both worked for the Navy and welcomed their three children, Janet, Jimmy, and Danny. In the early 1950’s they moved to the Buffalo, New York area for Jim to pursue work in the field of ballistic missile defense and they spent the next 25 years raising the “Piggies.” Jim often travelled out of town for his work and Edna kept the family thriving, as memorialized in a Mother’s Day note from Jim written during these years: “Only a blind man would fail to see that you are an outstanding mother and you are the hardest working member of this family. Your concern for all of us is probably the only reason that this ship of home runs on an even keel most of the time. I am convinced that there is a very special place in heaven for the kind of devoted mother that you are.” These years, mostly spent in Elma, New York, were filled with Mom’s good cooking, homemade school lunches, grand Sunday dinners after church with albums of Broadway musicals playing, pets, roller skating, snowman building, lawn-mowing, encouragement and the occasional reprimand or lecture. A large snowdrift presented no obstacle for Mom who would say “hold on kids” and drive right through it. If we got stuck, we dug ourselves out of the Buffalo snow and carried on. Mom was always the biggest kid of all. Our grade-school and high school friends were always welcome, invited for dinner, and treated like family.

Edna made sure that “dressing up” was not confined to Halloween and was known to disappear and reappear at any moment wearing something that brought peals of laughter to all present. The tradition continued throughout family gatherings, and we never knew which one or more of us would suddenly appear in a costume looking for a laugh. Edna coined her own nickname "Pearl” in the 1960’s when her daughter called her “pitiful” in a teenage moment. Edna began putting “Pearl” as her name on our frequent card game scoresheets, likening herself to a new doll that was selling that year, the Poor Pitiful Pearl doll. Over the years, Pearl collected many of these dolls and made sure each great-granddaughter received one of them.

After “the kids” left home, Jim’s work transferred to the United States Army Ballistic Missile Defense Center in Huntsville, Alabama where they remained for the rest of their lives. Those years were filled with travels to Texas, Kansas, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to see family; England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, Canada to see the world; cruises to Alaska, Panama, the Caribbean and the Rhine; and countless road trips to celebrate reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, or just visit. They met many friends along the way whose names and birthdays were immediately put in “Edna’s Address Book” for future cards and correspondence. While in Huntsville, Edna volunteered weekly at the Huntsville Hospital gift shop and received a Lifetime Auxiliary Award from the Hospital Auxiliary in recognition of her many years of service. It was during these years that “Pearl and Jim” began to be referred as the “King and Queen of Cute.”

Edna spent a lifetime giving to and caring for others with an overwhelming need to make everyone happy and well fed. She was a fabulous cook and is famous for her bread pudding, pot roast, and “pearl cookies.” She was a faithful convert to the Catholic Church and produced the church bulletin every Sunday at Annunciation Church in Elma, New York. She loved animals, especially birds, and even cared for and fed an outside turtle she named Tillie. She documented everything, never threw out a card or a letter that she received, and left us with a mountain of photographs, notes, letters, journals, calendars, and receipts from such places as the hospital where her children were born and the hotel where she spent her honeymoon.

Edna’s “golden” years were spent at Magnolia Trace where she made many friends and had a smile for all. She continued her lifetime habit of sending out a continuous stream of greeting cards to family and friends and monitored her address book like a sentry. She had no use for old age and its infirmities and her true Pasetti genes re-emerged in her last years. She made sure that she was “dressed for the day,” every day, with lipstick and pearls up to the last morning of her life, never wavering in her determination or motivation. The Pignataro family wishes to thank the Magnolia Trace staff and caregivers Annmarie Reid and Lucy Powers for their loving and patient care and countless card games of King’s Corners that they played with Mom every evening.

Edna Pearl kept playing and winning at cards until her last day, either at a table with family or solitaire on the computer. She loved dolls, children, roses, music, dancing, telling jokes, Shirley Temple, and Lawrence Welk. She knitted and crocheted blankets, throws, hats, scarves, clothes hangers, and fancy dishrags which are now resting in the homes of family and friends throughout the United States. We are confident that she is at peace with “my Jim,” along with her Mom, Dad and brother, who she has missed and kept in her heart for so long. As our Dad observed long ago, we know there is a very special place in heaven for her with him by her side.

Mrs. Pignataro is survived by her three children and their spouses Janet Pignataro Hansen, JD (Raphael) of Houston, Texas, James Pignataro, Jr., DDS (Grace Maria) of Huntsville, Alabama, and Daniel Pignataro, Sr. (Patricia) of Deland, Florida; six grandchildren James R. Pignataro, III, DDS (Reese), Joseph C. Pignataro, DDS, (Victoria) Daniel J. Pignataro, Jr. (Jessica), Jennifer Pignataro Vance (Chris), Patrick Hansen (Kelley) and Kelly Hansen, Jannie Bugge-Bury; eleven great-grandchildren Kile Taylor Pignataro, Eva and Claire Pignataro, Leo James and Emma Rose Pignataro, Kennedy and Presley Hansen, Douglas Bauer, Natasha Pignataro, Austin and Benjamin Peck, and Tristan and Adrian Bugge- Bury; her brother-in-law, Richard Pignataro; four generations of nieces and nephews, and countless cherished friends, all of whom received a birthday card every year of their lives from their Mom, Edna, Pearl, Gaggee, or Aunt Edna.

Services will be held at Good Shepherd Church, Huntsville, Alabama, on Thursday, February 15, 2024, with visitation at 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., followed by a Mass. Interment will follow the Mass at Valhalla Funeral Home and Memory Gardens, also in Huntsville. For those desiring, contributions may be made to your favorite charity in Edna’s memory.