Adele Interrante

Adele (Perrazzo) Interrante passed away peacefully on April 1st, 2021 at the age of 96.

Adele was born in L’Aquila, Italy on August 8th, 1924, to Cosimo and Ida Perrazzo. In 1928, the family journeyed to America on the S.S. Duilio, Italy’s first super ocean liner. While boarding the ship in Genoa, four-year-old Adele dropped a silver coin purse into the water. Displaying a fortitude that would define her life, she forged on to the riches that lay ahead.

The family docked in New York, the city Adele would call home for the next 92 years. Her formal education ended in the third grade, when she withdrew from school to help her mother care for her four younger siblings. She taught herself to read and write the language of her adopted homeland, and remained a voracious reader all her life. Rarely did an issue of the Daily News cross her kitchen table that was not read cover to cover and with a completed crossword to boot.

Known to everyone as “Lily,” Adele married Charles Interrante on October 14th, 1950 and began the family that would become the center of her life. From her house on Hillside Avenue, Adele raised four children, each of whom would go on to live their mother’s American dream.

Adele enjoyed the company of her siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors, welcoming them all for Friday card games and Sunday dinners. “Vegas Lil” was the consummate host, offering up cold beers or glasses of Chianti and filling her home with laughter and the smooth sounds of Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne.

Over the years she added eight grandchildren to her table. “Grandma Adele” was never so happy and proud as when she was with her grandkids, sharing stories on the stoop or whipping up salami sandwiches between endless games of War. They loved her and told her so often, to which she always responded with what would become her signature greeting, “I love you more.”

Adele was predeceased by her cherished parents, Cosimo and Ida, step-mother Felicita, brothers Peter, Anthony, Americo and Ettore, sister Mary, and husband, Charles.

Adele is survived by her four children: Gussie Sanzillo (Francis), Vincent Interrante, Marie Fogarty (Michael) and Diane Rice; as well as her eight grandchildren: Robert (Alexandra Bourlas), Michael, Brendan, Timothy, Claire, Danielle, Jake and Kevin.

Grounded by her faith in God and devotion to her family, Adele lived an improbable life and secured a bright future for her children and grandchildren. She was a living monument to the importance of kindness, honesty, hard work, and love. She will live on in her colorful stories, her delicious recipes, and in the memories of those she loved. She will be truly missed.