Yolanda was born and raised in Aquilonia, Italy (province of Avellino) and together, with her sister-in-law Assunta, flew to the United States during a terrible snow storm on January 30, 1966. Yolanda first lived in East Orange, with her sister Adelaide, and worked for Bell Telephone as a dispatcher.
Yolanda married her husband, Vincenzo, on May 26, 1973 and started her family in Orange, NJ before settling in West Orange in 1979. She would live in West Orange for 25 years before moving to Livingston in 2004.
Yolanda possessed a love of cooking and shared that love with her family and friends. Among her delicious specialties were homemade taralli, tripe soup and her famous zucchini pie, to name a few. She loved playing the Italian card game Scopa, listening and dancing to Italian music, watching Shirley Temple movies and most of all, spending time with her children and grandchildren.
She is the beloved wife of Vincenzo Picillo; loving mother of Felice Picillo and his wife Alexaida, and Josette Leishman and her husband Steve; dear sister of Gerardo Balletti, Renato Balletti, and the late Maria Balletti in Ragionato, Antonietta Lotrecchiano and Adelaide Vitello; cherished grandmother of Ryan Vincent and Emily Grace Picillo.
In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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