Lillian Mary Spratt

Lillian “Linda” Marie Spratt passed away peacefully at home, Westerly, Rhode Island with her son John “Jack” at her side on Friday March 4, 2022 of natural causes. She was 102.
Born November 3, 1919 in Westbury, NY to Andrea “Andy” Rosaforte, a blacksmith and Italian immigrant, and Annie Josephine McManus Rosaforte, an Irish immigrant, she grew up alongside brothers Salvatore (1917-2006?) and Joseph (1918-1986). After graduating in 1936 from St. Francis of Assisi School in Mount Kisco, she worked as a secretary at Briarcliff College in Briarcliff Manor, NY, and then worked well into her 70s to support her family businesses.
Throughout her long life, she was known for her faith, humor, kindness, friendship, empathy, independence, wisdom, sayings, beauty, and bravery, for her ability to forgive and forget, and, above all, for her love of her family and friends. Shaped by the loss of her mother Annie when she was only four, she learned many of her hallmark traits from her father Andy’s love of people, his singing, his work ethic, and his kindnesses in providing for so many families during the Depression as a construction foreman. She also learned tolerance through the kindness and love of her stepmother, Daisy Zinc Rosaforte, as well as through the prejudice she experienced as an Irish/Italian, and from hard physical work starting at a very young age and throughout her life, including mowing her grass with a manual push mower and trimming her hedges until she was 98. Her selfless and tireless devotion to her family defined her throughout her long life.
The way she lived her life, she never drank and would only take aspirin for pain, including through the agony of her last year. She dealt with the grief at the loss of her beloved only daughter Linda, at age 28, the love of her life, Elmer “Jack,” at 62, her beloved oldest son Danny, at 76, and her granddaughter Tara, at 37. She lived on her own for thirty-eight years and gave up her independence of driving her “Nelly Bell” long before necessary and for concern that she might hurt someone. Linda showed fierce loyalty to her family and many friends, young and old, from Mount Kisco, NY, where she grew up, from the many places she and Jack were stationed during World War II, especially Saint Louis, and from Carmel, Washingtonville, and Monroe, NY, where she partnered in business with her husband and son Danny to found Jack’s TV and Satellite Services. She lived and raised her family in Peekskill, NY starting in 1952, and loved spending weekends at Island Lake in Wayne County, PA. She left her home in Peekskill at 99 and spent the last years of her life in Westerly in the devoted care of her son Jack. Her life was truly a case study of a life well lived.
She was blessed with and so proud of her seven grandchildren, Colleen, Danielle, Emily, John, Lilly, Meredith, and Tara, and three great grandchildren, Annie, Elliot, and Violet Lilly. As a dedicated grandmother, she made it a point to be as involved as possible, attending countless recitals, sports events, plays, and graduations. She delighted her grandkids with her lively magic performances, vivid storytelling, and delicious baking: she amazed them with her ability to make any plant grow and flourish, and with her sheer gusto for life: well into her 90s, she was known to put on a pair of roller skates, grab a softball mitt, or ride a go-kart to keep up with the kids. She was grateful for the unending love and support from her sons Danny, Michael, and Jack and their families.
Her life is a celebration of the best of the human spirit; love, humility, loss, struggle, acceptance and getting on! A soulful compassionate angel that touched so many in profound ways.
One of her many sayings is particularly poignant: “Remember me as you pass by. As you are now so once was I…As I am now, so you will be, prepare yourself to follow me.”
Instead of flowers consider an act of kindness in her name.