Gloria Antonia Basile Obituary

Gloria Basile, a long-time resident of Pelham NY, died at home in Maplewood NJ on November 2, 2017. She was 84.

She was married for 47 years to the late Francis X. Basile, who died in 2004. They raised their children in Pelham before retiring to Florida.

Gloria taught second grade in the Pelham public schools during the 1970s and 80s. She engaged and challenged all her students, from those with learning disabilities to the gifted and talented. Over the years, more than a few seven-year-olds made proposals of marriage; many returned as adults to visit her decades later.

She was the fourth of five children of Demetrio Cuzzocrea and Francesca (Scambia) Cuzzocrea, both immigrants from Motta San Giovanni in Calabria, Italy.
She grew up in the Mount Carmel section of the Bronx, attended Hunter College High School, then Hunter College in Manhattan. She later went on to obtain a master's degree in education from the College of New Rochelle.

Despite disabling rheumatoid arthritis, Gloria was a woman of boundless energy and resolve who sometimes moved faster than was good for her, earning from her husband the moniker of "Go-go Gloria." When faced with a daunting task she would often exhort herself saying "I can DO it!"

Gloria leaves behind a daughter, Lisa Basile (and her husband David Rosenblatt) of Maplewood, and two sons, John Paul of Los Angeles CA and Francis X., Jr. (and his wife Sandra Kunhardt Basile) of East Greenwich RI, as well as six granddaughters: Giulia, Anna, Franca, Lucy, Florence and Scarlett.

She is also survived by sisters Carmela and Clara (and husband Frank) Figari, all of Sarasota FL. She was preceded in death by her sister Giuseppina Scambia of Clairemont FL, her brother Anthony Cuzzocrea of Roanoke VA whose widow Marjorie resides in Wilmington NC and brother-in-law Peter Figari, the late husband of Carmela.

Gloria"s family offers heartfelt thanks to her personal aide Peggy Hoyte, whose sensitive and attentive care and companionship softened the difficult last year of her life.

Calling hours will be Sunday, November 5 from 4:00 to 8:00 pm at the Lloyd Maxcy & Sons Beauchamp Chapel in New Rochelle. A funeral mass will take place the following morning at 10:00 am at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in Pelham. Burial will follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne NY. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Covenant House.