Joan Berardocco

Longtime Westerleigh resident Joan Berardocco, 80, a food services employee at St. John's University and a matriarch of three generations who will be remembered as selfless and giving, died Wednesday in Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton.

Born Joan Gorczakowski in Elm Park, she graduated from Port Richmond High School.

In 1957, she moved to Westerleigh and remained a resident of that community.

Primarily a homemaker, she worked for 25 years in the cafeteria at St. John's University, Grymes Hill.

Mrs. Berardocco was devoted to her family. In 1980, she donated a kidney to her son David, who died in 2002.

She enjoyed playing bingo and taking trips to Atlantic City. A great cook who loved entertaining, she hosted family gatherings each holiday.

Mrs. Berardocco was a loving wife and mother who enjoyed doting on her grandchildren and great-grandson.

"She was a special woman who taught me how to cook and bake, but more importantly, she treated me as if I were her own daughter," said her daughter-in-law, Frances Berardocco.

She was a parishioner of St. Teresa's R.C. Church, Castleton Corners.

Alfred, her husband of 42 years, died in 1998.

She is survived by her son, Louis; two grandchildren and one great-grandson.

The funeral will be Saturday from the Casey Funeral Home, with a mass at 9:30 a.m. in St. Teresa's Church, both in Castleton Corners. Burial will follow in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp.