Obituary of Angelina M. O'Brien

Angelina Marie O'Brien, 95, died Sunday, September 8 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center surrounded by loved ones. She was born April 17, 1929.

Angelina and her older brother, George, grew up in Brooklyn, NY, during the Great Depression. As orphans, they lived in a series of foster homes or as residents of the Angel Guardian Home, a Catholic orphanage on 12th Avenue. They were poor, but they had each other to enliven their spirits in tough times. Their favorite person was a woman named Lucia Lenese, whom they called “Grandma,” who provided them with a stable home until they were 12 and 14 years old.

Angelina and George would often find escape in the form of Hollywood movies and radio programs. Too young, they snuck into a matinee showing of “King Kong” and were held spellbound by the exotic images on the big screen. They carried their love of books and movies with them throughout their lives. Angelina’s favorite books were “Oliver Twist” and “Little Women.” Her favorite movie was “The Wizard of Oz.”

At 16, Angelina left school and started supporting herself as a switchboard operator for Bell Telephone in NYC. Her brother George enlisted in the Army.

Angelina married her first husband, William Colaizzo, in 1950, while he was serving in the  Navy. Ten years later, he died after a short illness, leaving Angelina to raise their daughters, Camille and Teresa.

In 1964, Angelina married William O'Brien, who brought with him his young son, Billy, from an earlier marriage. William served as a U.S. Marine during the Korean War, and later joined the NYC Transit Police Department. Angelina and William had two children, Wayne in 1965 and Jill in 1969.

In the mid-1960s, the O’Brien family moved to Long Island. One fateful day, Angelina was offered a chance to “watch television for money.” She accepted, of course, making the O’Briens one of only 1100 households in America whose television viewing habits were monitored closely by the Nielsen Ratings company. In service to a higher cause, they faithfully watched every episode of the original Star Trek series.

In 1976, seeking a quieter existence, the O'Brien family moved to Fleischmanns, NY, a former resort village in the Catskill Mountains. As the family tried to adjust to rural living, William died suddenly after a short illness. Beset by this devastating loss and the historic winter storms of 1977, the family moved again, this time to Seattle, Washington, to be near daughter Camille and her young son Arian. In 1979, homesick for New York state, Angelina moved her family back east to Lake Katrine, NY.

To support her family, Angelina worked a variety of jobs in the Hudson Valley. Her favorite job, by far, was in the mortgage department of Ulster Savings Bank, where she worked for 15 years, and counted her co-workers among her best friends. She retired from the bank in 1999.

Throughout her life, Angelina loved to paint, sew, and bake pies. She cooked pasta every Sunday night. She was also a committed gardener and filled her half-acre property with anything that Adams Nursery was willing to deliver. She maintained an uneasy detente with the woodchucks that held sway in her backyard.

She is survived by her children, Camille Colaizzo of Seattle, WA; Teresa Colaizzo of NYC; Wayne (Amy) O'Brien of Poughkeepsie, NY; Jill O'Brien of Wappingers Falls, NY; grandson, Arian Noma, and great-grand daughter, Marley Rain Sullivan, of Pateros, WA. She is predeceased by her brother, George.

Visitation will be held on September 12, 2024, from 5pm to 7pm at Timothy P. Doyle Funeral Home, 371 Hooker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603. Burial will follow on Friday at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Expressions of sympathy may be made in the form of donations to Ulster County SPCA.