Obituary of HELEN DAIDONE

Helen Theresa Daidone, born on October 3, 1925 as Elena Tucciaroni passed away

peacefully in her home in Leisure Village, Ridge, NY after a long home hospice stay.

Elena was born in Brooklyn to Joseph and Theresa Tucciaroni, immigrants from Rome

and Naples, Italy, part of the wave of immigrants after World War I.  Her father was

a beautician and wigmaker, and her mother a homemaker.

At the age of 3, Elena and her three sisters, Grace, Francis and Margaret were placed

in St. Joseph's Catholic Home in Brooklyn when their mother

became ill after a miscarriage and a subsequent illness and was unable to care for them

at home. Elena spent the next 7 years raised in the home and thought she was Irish, 

until the day she returned home and found her mother only spoke Italian (though her

father could read and write English.) 

Although Elena had dreams of becoming an actress and dancer, and used to take

acting and modeling classes for 25 cents a week as a teen, she became a seamstress and

pattern maker during the war and worked in the factories making sailor suits for the navy recruits.

After the war, she worked in the garment industry making women's outerwear where

she met her future husband, Gaspare Daidone.  They married in 1953 but not before she

traveled to Bermuda numerous times and explored a brief stint as a catalog model for petite

ladies' dresses.  

Elena had three children, Joni, Ben, and Joseph, who she raised in Valley Stream after moving

from Brooklyn in 1961. In addition to being a full-time mother and homemaker while her husband

Gaspare worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week running the family garment manufactures business,

Helen also volunteered at Holy Name of Mary teaching Catechism at the elementary school, campaigning

and registering voters for the local Democratic party, and later working at Family Circle Magazine as

a receptionist and assistant.  

In addition to her three children, Elena's greatest passions were opera music, poetry, classic films and making 

people laugh.  Her wit, charm, and personal sense of style were legendary in Valley Stream, as some folks called her

the Mayor of Valley Stream -- bouncing back and forth between Mitchell's,Anconas and Itgen's chatting with local

friends and neighbors about everything from an aria sung by Maria Callas to a poem by Maya Angelou or the disparities

between Wuthering Heights, the novel, and the film version.  One of her favorites poems was Invictus by Victorian poet William Ernest Henley which she would recite unprompted when in the mood or if the conversation grew stale. 

She could recite lines and monologues from Affair to Remember or any number of films, plays or poems. 

One of Helen's greatest adventures was when she decided to travel to Italy with her 92 year old mother Theresa,

who had not been back to Naples since she was a young woman of 22.  They toured Florence, Rome, and Naples,

by bus for two weeks and were the hit of the tour. 

In addition to her passion for the arts, Elena did have a few vices, and they included the one-armed bandits and

slot machines in Atlantic City and the scratch-offs she'd buy weekly on Rockaway Avenue.  But her biggest joy

was the time she spent with her grandchildren, Zachary and Matt, and later with Alexandra and Gabrielle.  

Helen is survived by her children, and her beloved daughters-in-laws Carol Gucciardo and Roseann Daidone, many

loving nieces and nephews and other family friends and neighbors, who will miss her greatly. 

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS CONTRIBUTIONS MAY BE MADE IN HELENS MEMORY 

https://salvationarmy.org/     

https://www.diabetes.org/donate/donate-memorial

https://freshair.org/.