Josephine (Peluso) Witkowsky, wife of the late William G. Witkowsky, died Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at Middlesex Hospital. Josephine was born in Hartford on September 1, 1932 to Carmine and Josephine (Perrone) Peluso. She met her future husband in the offices of G. Fox & Company on Main Street; Bill quit his job there to head off to Art school, and she replaced him. When he kept turning up afterward, she wondered if he wanted his job back. They were married in 1956. Josephine volunteered at the library at Hartford’s Batchelder School when her children were small and then worked part-time at Travelers Insurance Company and at Shimkus, Murphy & Lemkuil, the latter until she was past eighty, a day or two a week. She was a member of Holy Trinity Church in Hartford for sixty years.
Josephine is survived by her daughter Catherine and son-in-law David Cavanaugh of Avon; son Peter of Newburgh, NY; son William and his partner Arthur Zieky of Newington; granddaughter Elizabeth Cavanaugh of Avon and her fiancé Jason Dubour of Enfield; grandson Matthew Cavanaugh of Avon; sister-in-law Patricia Peluso of Enfield; also, many nieces and nephews she loved to reminisce with, among them Susan Lazarcheck of Bluffton, SC, who was born the day she was married and was especially dear to her. Josephine was predeceased by her three sisters and three brothers: Michelina DeGray of Hartford, Michael Peluso of Enfield, Rose Campanelli of Windsor Locks, Anthony Peluso of West Hartford, Christine Deming of Madison, and John Peluso of Hartford. Josephine’s family is grateful to the caring staff (nurses, aides, servers, coordinators, receptionists) who made her last three-and-a-half years at Cedar Mountain Commons in Newington a time we will look back on fondly.
D’Esopo Funeral Chapel of Wethersfield is handling the arrangements. Funeral services and burial in Mt. St. Benedict Cemetery, Bloomfield will be private. Memorial donations in Josephine’s honor may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 260 Cochituate Rd., Suite 200, Framingham, MA 01701 or the St. Francis Hospital Foundation, 95 Woodland St., 2nd Floor, Hartford, CT 06105. To share a memory of Josephine, please visit www.desopofuneralchapel.com.
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