Florence Giannattasio, ex chamber director, dies at 97

Noah Manskar

Florence Giannattasio, a longtime member of the Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce and a former member of its board of directors, died Feb. 8. She was 97.

Giannattasio was known as a friendly, familiar face who continued to work hard well into her later years, said Rich DeMartino, a former chamber president.

“No barrier was age. No matter how old you were, how young you were, she became your friend and she always made you feel welcome,” said Vivian DeMartino, Rich DeMartino’s wife who has been involved with the chamber.

Giannattasio moved to New Hyde Park in 1941 and began working as a bookkeeper in 1954, said Bob Giannatasio, 70, Florence’s son.

She started as a teller at the Meadowbrook Savings Bank on Hillside Avenue, then took a job with Island Federal Savings Bank, working her way up to assistant vice president.

She went into semi-retirement for a time, then took another job at the State Bank of Long Island in 1988, when she was 70, Bob Giannatasio said.

She worked at the bank, now Valley National Bank, until finally retiring at 92.

Work was a major part of Giannatasio’s life, and she passed it on to her family, said her son, who called her “the original Energizer bunny rabbit.”

“A good part of her life was to be productive — to give something back to the community, to give something back to business, whatever the case might be,” Bob Giannatasio said.

She was also a longtime member of the Notre Dame Parish in New Hyde Park, her son said, and was a good friend of former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Clinton G. Martin.

Giannattasio was active in helping the chamber plan events and would participate in whatever she could, DeMartino said.

“She really was an inspiration to everybody, because of her age — she just kept on going,” he said.

She was known as the person who would greet members at meetings and check them in, DeMartino said, someone “everybody loved to see.”

“Everybody had such great things to say about her,” he said. “She was always smiling, always had a laugh, and she really was a valuable person to us in the chamber.”

Vivian DeMartino said Giannattasio “always made everybody feel welcome” and maintained a “warm, positive attitude.”

“She never was that cranky old lady,” she said.

Giannattasio was honored Feb. 11 with a wake at R. Stutzmann & Son Funeral Home and a mass at Notre Dame Parish.

She was buried that day at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury.

Giannattasio is survived by her two sons, Bob and Frank, 73, of Boca Raton, Fla.; and three grandsons, Frank III, 51, Billy, 48, and Dain, 25.

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