Yolanda Granito

Born and raised Yolanda Di Clerico in New Brighton, she was the 10th of 12 children. After attending Curtis High School, she worked for Uniforms by Ostwald, New Brighton, and St. Vincent’s Hospital, West Brighton.

She and Anthony Granito were childhood sweethearts and dated as teenagers. They wed in Assumption R.C. Church, New Brighton, in April 1945, while he was on leave from the U.S. Army Air Force. After his military service, they lived in New Brighton until moving to Sunnyside in 1962.

Mrs. Granito loved music and dancing with her husband, and their fancy footwork covered everything from the fox trot to the Lindy hop to square dancing competitively with the Staten Island Squares in the late 1970s.

She helped him at his food concession at Lyons Pool in Tompkinsville and the former Westervelt Meat Market in New Brighton. After raising her family, she was a clerical worker for the Social Security Administration.

A foster mother for New York Foundling, she raised seven sons through infancy.

Mrs. Granito was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Granito-Smith Post, American Legion, named in part for her brother-in-law, Carmine Granito, who was killed on Okinawa during World War II.

The Granitos wintered in Miami Beach from 1980 until 2003. Mrs. Granito relocated to New Hope, Pa., in 2004, and settled in Jackson in 2009.

She was happiest when surrounded by her family, including her sonswith her family, and was very close to her sons-in-law, Tony Esposito and Peter Mancuso, family said. She especially enjoyed cooking for them, and was renowned for her delicious meatballs and other Italian specialties.

Anthony, her husband of 58 years, died in 2003.

Surviving are her daughters, Arcangela Esposito and Camille Mancuso; her son, Frank; a brother, Albert Di Clerico; a sister, Rose Bilotti; six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be Tuesday from the Casey Funeral Home, with a mass at 9:30 a.m. in St. Teresa’s R.C. Church, both Castleton Corners. Burial will follow in St. Peter’s Cemetery, West Brighton.

Arrangements under the direction of Casey Funeral Home, Staten Island, NY.