Silvia Cassidy

Born Silvia Escalante in Honduras, in Central America, she graduated from high school there, and started her career in the accounting department of the United Fruit Company, where she learned English and computer keypunching.

She came to New York in the 1950s, settling on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She moved to Staten Island when she married her husband, Gerard.

Mrs. Cassidy worked for 25 years in the financial services industry on Wall Street, and retired in 1990.

“She had an independent spirit, was a very strong woman, and lived life on her our terms,” said her son, James. “She loved her adopted country.”

She was passionate about music and dancing, and continued to dance in her 80s. “She danced at my wedding two years ago,” her son recalled. She also enjoyed crosswords and other puzzles, watching golf, and walking, especially on Buono Beach near the Alice Austen House in Rosebank.

Mrs. Cassidy was thrilled to welcome her only grandson, Ryan, into the world last August, and “cherished every minute she spent with him,” said her son, James.

Gerard, her husband of 36 years, died in 2001.

Surviving are her son, James, and one grandson.

The funeral service is Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Harmon Home for Funerals, West Brighton. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery, also West Brighton.