Obituary of Eleanor Cifaloglio

Eleanor Emma Mattioli Cifaloglio, age ninety-three, slipped these earthly bonds on the morning of December 28, attended to by loving family and friends. She died of natural causes at Somers Place Assisted Living, where she had resided for the past three years. She was born October 2, 1924, a Thursday, in Landisville, the second child and oldest daughter of the late Nick Mattioli and Mary Rossatto Mattioli. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of forty-four years, Henry CIfaloglio, who passed away in 1990; a son, Nicky Cifaloglio, who died in an automobile accident in 1969: brothers Louie and Billy Mattioli; sisters Ida Mattioli DeLiberis and Lorraine Mattioli Martinelli; and brothers-in-law Larry Martinelli and Al DeLiberis. Eleanor was a 1943 graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Vineland and earned a degree in business accounting from the Pierce School of Philadelphia in 1946. That same year, she married Henry Cifaloglio and the two began raising a family and building business ventures, first in Landisville and, beginning in 1959, at their home on Harding Highway in Buena. The family operated a grocery store at that location from 1959 to 1967 and started a waste management firm that became Cifaloglio Incorporated. In 1928, at the age of four, Eleanor sailed to Italy with her parents to visit the ancestral towns of the Rossatto and Mattioli families, in Germangana and Borgo Capanne, respectively. During this extended visit, young Eleanor also visited Rome and the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii and collected chestnuts in the foothills of the Alps. As a teenager, she helped her father and uncles deliver bread from the Mattioli Brothers Bakery to locations all around south Jersey. She played catcher for the Landisville Go Getters girls softball team. She was an accomplished seamstress who made clothes for herself and her family. As children, Eleanor and her siblings and cousins spent summers in Sea Isle City, sharing a house on 42nd Street that is still in the family. When she had children of her own, one of her favorite past times was to spend the day on the beach at Sea Isle with her sisters and sisters-in-law and their families. In addition to teaching her children cursive writing, using the Palmer Method, Eleanor enjoyed playing ball and flying kites with her children and their friends. After retiring in 1987, Eleanor and Henry began to visit Florida during the winter months. In 1992, Eleanor took rooms at the Taromina, an apartment complex in Hallendale, where a number of friends and relatives, including her sister Lorraine, also spent the winter. Eleanor was a faithful Catholic who worshiped for many years at Our Lady of Victories Church in Landisville. Survivors include her sisters-in-law Yola Cifaloglio Saffioti, Dot Mattioli, and Judy Mattioli; her children Claire Cifaloglio (Rob Abbot), Tom Cifaloglio, Larry Cifaloglio (Arlene Soto), Delmo Cifaloglio (Rina Cifaloglio), and Tina Cifaloglio (Ralph Pappas); grandchildren Matt Cifaloglio, Nicole Cramer, Stacey Rooks, Ellie Cifaloglio, Mary Claire Abbot, Gabriella Cifaloglio, Sage Cifaloglio, Francesca Cifaloglio, Isabella Cifaloglio, and Mya Cifaloglio; great grand children Chloe and Kenni Cramer and Maxwell Rooks; step great grandson Dean Bernadini; many loving nieces and nephews; and her long-time companion Doris Jacoby. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Nicandro Cifaloglio Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of Buena Regional High School, 125 Weymouth Road, Buena, NJ 08310.