Frances Norton

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Former Staten Islander Frances Castellano Norton, 97, of Oceanport, N.J., a retired hair stylist and salon owner who was devoted to her family, died Monday in Monmouth Medical Center, in Long Branch, N.J.

Born Frances Rocchi in Manhattan, she moved with family to New Brighton as an infant. After she and Samuel Castelleno wed, the couple settled in Castleton Corners. She lived there for most of her life, raising two children and operating a beauty salon, La Petite, in Stapleton.

After her husband died in 1964, she traveled extensively. For a few years she worked as a hairdresser on the luxury cruise ship SS United States.

In the late 1960s she and Kenneth Norton married and moved to Sarasota, Fla. Mr. Norton died in the late 1970s. She lived in Sarasota until about two years ago, when she settled Oceanport.

"She was a liberated woman before the term was even popular," said her daughter, Janet Scaffa. "She was also a hardworking person and a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother."

Surviving, along with her daughter, Janet, are her daughter, Joy Sherman; a sister, Eleanor DiMarco; three grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be Wednesday from the Casey Funeral Home, with a mass at 10:45 a.m. in St. Teresa's R.C. Church, both Castleton Corners. Arrangements include cremation.