Ana was born in Matanzas, Cuba, on Dec. 1, 1913, the oldest child of Anita (Colosia) and Carlos Cossio. She loved music and started playing the piano at an early age. When she was a young child, Ana moved with her parents and four siblings (Guadalupe, Carlos, Pepe, and Maria Luisa, all deceased) to Madrid, Spain, where she studied piano and later received her diploma in Music from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid. In 1929, Ana and her family returned to Matanzas where she continued her music studies and later married her husband Laureano. After the early death of her husband in 1956, Ana took over, managed and ran the hardware business that had been started by her husband. She was an independent woman who broke with tradition to become a businesswoman in a society that at the time expected recently widowed women to be secluded at home for a period of mourning. She was a pioneer, admired by many, for being one of the first females to successfully run a business in a line that was then associated with men.
Ana emigrated to the United States in 1968 after the Castro communist government of Cuba confiscated her family business. She lived in Chicago where she worked at the Encyclopedia Britannica for many years before retiring. She also lived in Skokie, IL, Miami Beach, FL, Aventura, FL, and Pasadena, CA before moving to Scituate in 2008 with her son Laureano and his wife Janet.
Music was Ana’s passion in life, and specially the music of the great classical composers and composers of the classical music of Spain. Ana was an accomplished pianist and she played the piano and guitar regularly until she was 96 years of age when her health started to fail. Ana was a fashion conscious individual who liked to dress in the latest fashions of the day. She traveled frequently and enjoyed spending time in the beach. She loved her family and cherished being surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and others. Ana was an inspiration to those who knew her and will be sorely missed by her family.
Ana is survived by her daughter Ana Maria Blanco (Freed Nackley) of Cape Coral, FL; her son Laureano (Janet) Alvarez of Scituate, MA; five grandchildren: Lucio (Patricia) Blanco of Palmetto Bay, FL, Pablo Blanco of Miami, FL, Laureano (Michelle) Alvarez of Santa Clarita, CA, Mark (Therese) Alvarez of Scituate, MA, Catherine (Dion) Tsourides of Plymouth, MA; nine great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and two dear sisters-in-law: Giselda Cossio of Jamaica, NY and Ada V. Cossio of San Jose, Costa Rica.
Visiting will be on Tuesday from 5-8PM at the funeral home. Funeral from the Richardson-Gaffey Funeral Home, 382 First Parish Rd, Scituate on Wednesday, November 23rd at 9AM followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Mary of the Nativity Church, Scituate at 10AM. Interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery will be private.
In lieu of flowers donations in Ana’s memory may be made to the Life Care Center of the South Shore, Attn. Activities Director, 309 Driftway, Scituate, MA 02066 to support their music program.
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