By Albert Amateau
Edith Sammartine, a lifelong Village resident, died Aug. 11 in New York Hospital surrounded by her family. She was 85. She had been in good health until a month ago, according to her grandson John Bell.
“She loved the Village and she had broad interests and sympathies,” said her daughter Jane Bell. “She was regal, maternal and sophisticated. She loved opera and theater. She was a great reader — loved biographies — and she was a supporter of many causes, including world hunger and gay rights.”
Born on Spring St., the daughter of Nicola and Maria Francesca D’Alessandro — who immigrated from Moliterno in southern Italy in 1901 — she attended St. Anthony of Padua elementary school on MacDougal St and graduated from Washington Irving High School on Irving Pl.
“She was curious about everything and took evening classes at Stuyvesant High School, New York University and Fordham. She loved the Italian classes that she took faithfully for years,” said her daughter.
Edith D’Alessandro married Joseph Sammartine, a childhood sweetheart, after he returned from military service in World War II. He was an assistant supervisor with the Department of Sanitation and died in 1982.
Edith Sammartine attended a reunion with her entire family last year in Tuscany.
“She was the matriarch of the family and we were all fiercely loyal and devoted to her,” said her grandson.
In addition to her daughter Jane Bell and her grandson, John Bell, another daughter, Anne Sammartine, four other grandchildren and a great-granddaughter also survive. The funeral was at St. Anthony of Padua on Aug. 14 and burial was in Calvary Cemetery. Perazzo Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker St., was in charge of arrangements.
