Vincenza D'Aversa

Cornwallville - Vincenza D'Aversa, Doctor of Chiropractic, 91, passed away Sunday, June 5, 2011 at Colombia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, NY after a short illness. Born in Marineo, Sicily on November 10, 1919, she was the last surviving daughter of the late Salvatore and Maria D'Aversa. Vincenza, "Aunt Nancy" to her many nieces and nephews, came to the United States in 1926 at age seven. She lived with her family in Manhattan and Brooklyn before finally settling in Corona, Queens in 1931, where she spent the next sixty-eight years of her life until moving to Cornwallville in 2009 to live with her niece, Mary Louise Leslie. A graduate of New York University in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Vincenza went on to study at the American Institute for Chiropractic where she received her degree in 1954. From 1942 to 1954 she worked as a lab technician at Mt. Sinai Hospital and as a chemist at Airkem in New York City. In 1954 she set up her chiropractic practice in the family residence in Corona where she practiced for fifty-four years until her retirement in 2009. Vincenza was small in stature, but large in life. A great lover of the outdoors, she was a world traveler visiting such places as China, Russia, Australia, South America, the Galapagos, Italy and Sicily (where she visited her many cousins), Poland, the Scandinavian countries, Mexico and the many National Parks in the U.S. She especially enjoyed spending vacations in the Catskills with her sister and family. She loved going to the Metropolitan Opera and enjoyed listening to classical music. Her greatest joy was doing things with her numerous nieces and nephews and their offspring. Since Vincenza's move to Cornwallville she has attended St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Windham where she was a member of the Ladies Guild. She also enjoyed numerous trips with the WAJPL group, a Golden Age Club. Vincenza was predeceased by her parents, her sisters, Frances, Rosie, Anna, Jenny, Petrina and Concetta, her brothers-in-law, Ernest, Leon, Charles and Rosolino, and her nephews, Salvatore and Leonard. "Aunt Nancy" is survived by her loving nieces and nephews, Mary Cantatore of Las Vegas, NV, Robert (Rita) Suardi of Ancona, Italy, Josephine Bonfiglio of North Richland Hills, TX, Mary Louise Leslie of Cornwallville, NY, Rosalie (Barry) Kamer of Islip Terrace, NY, Mary (Jacob)Thompson of Bowie, MD, Charles (Sharon) Maneri of Schenectady, NY and Francis (Elizabeth) D'Aversa of Plainfield, NJ, Richland Hills, TX. She is also survived by twenty-four grand-nieces and nephews, twenty-eight great-great-nieces and nephews, and many cousins in Sicily. Funeral services will be Friday, June 10, at 10 a.m. at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Windham. Calling hours are Thursday, June 9, from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at the Decker Funeral Home, 5312 Main Street, Windham. Interment will be in Cornwallville Cemetery. Donations may be made in her name to New York State Chiropractic College, P.O. Box 800, Seneca Falls, NY 13148-0800.