Theresa Falcone

She was born Theresa Pastorello on Manhattan's Lower East Side, moved to Long Island City, Queens, when she was nine years old, and graduated from high school there.

She relocated to Staten Island in 1963, settling in Great Kills. She moved to Bushkill, Penn., in 1997, and to Tom's River six years ago.

Mrs. Falcone worked as a secretary until her first child was born and then devoted herself to homemaking.

"Family was the priority for her," said her daughter, Barbara Falcone. "She was happiest when the whole family was with her, especially the tradition of Christmas Eve dinner, which started at 3 p.m. and went on until midnight."

"She was very friendly, very funny, and people enjoyed being with her," Barbara added. "She was very much her own person, and had a tom-boy side. She taught me how to mix concrete when I was 10 years old."

Mrs. Falcone was the first woman umpire in the Great Kills Little League, in the early 1970s, family said, and never missed a game that her sons played through the years.

She loved football, watched the NFL Network every day up until her death, and was a "huge" Dallas Cowboys fan, collecting sweatshirts, hats, mugs and other memorabilia. She was also an avid bowler and belonged to leagues at Showplace Entertainment Center and Rab's Country Lanes.

Mrs. Falcone possessed a green thumb and was an organic gardener. An excellent and versatile cook, with thousands of recipes catalogued, she was famous for her lobster Newburg, and Italian red gravy and meatballs.

Mrs. Falcone was a long-time parishioner at St. Clare's R.C. Church in Great Kills.

In addition to her daughter, Barbara, she is survived by her husband of 61 years, Frank; sons Robert and Steven; her sister, Nancy McLaughlin; four grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

The funeral will be Wednesday with a mass at 9:45 a.m. in St. Clare's Church, followed by burial in Resurrection, Cemetery, Pleasant Plains. Casey-McCallum-Rice South Shore Funeral Home in Great Kills is handling the arrangements.