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By Shavana Abruzzo
Brooklyn Daily
Assunta Santa Maria — big sister of Courier Life columnist Carmine Santa Maria and a lively family elder who took the “Big Screecher” to Coney Island during his youth and taught him how to swim — passed away from pneumonia at Maimonides Medical Center on June 4. She was 93 and had been admitted two days earlier with breathing problems.
The dark-haired beauty was a ringer for ’30s Hollywood star Ida Lupino and grew up in the Depression on Manhattan’s Lower East Side before moving to Bensonhurst with her parents and three younger siblings in the early 1950s. Widely known as “Aunt Sue,” she never married, and continued to live in the neighborhood, where she served as a member of the rosary society at Most Precious Blood Church.
Assunta left school to work as a coat finisher in the garment district and toiled up to 10 hours a day for 44 years before retiring, said her brother.
“She was extremely hardworking and she took care of everybody,” said Carmine Santa Maria, 78, the youngest of her siblings, one of whom is deceased. “She became the family matriarch after our parents died.”
Assunta’s abundant spirit was a magnet for children and manifested itself in her good deeds, he added. She often paid for family vacations without being asked, and once footed the entire bill for a large family trip to Disney World when a relative bowed out after promising to pay.
The Santa Marias were regulars at the popular Ravenhall Baths in Coney Island, where the big sis taught her little brother how to swim — and later how to cut the rug.
“She was a good swimmer, and a great dancer who taught me how to do the rhumba,” said Santa Maria, a former life guard and dance teacher.
His sister’s high spirits were infectious, and she will be sorely missed, he said.
“She was the most generous and kind person I knew, but don’t ever get her mad or she would confront you,” he chuckled.
Assunta Santa Maria is survived by her brother Carmine, her sister Giovanina, and several nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews.
Her wake will be held at Peter C. Labella Funeral Home, 2625 Harway Avenue in Bensonhurst, on June 7–8, and she will be laid to rest at Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island on June 9.
Courier Life Publications extends its condolences to the Santa Maria family.