Anella (Arminas) Benesevich

"As everlasting foundations upon a solid rock, so the commandments of God in the heart of a holy woman."

Waterbury  - Anella "Nellie" (Arminas) Benesevich, 101 3/4, passed away on Monday, June 1, at Apple Rehabilitation, Watertown. She was the wife of the late Joseph Benesevich.

Nellie was born on John Street, in the Brooklyn section of Waterbury, on September 17, 1918, daughter of the late John and Anna (Krakauskas) Arminas. She was a graduate of St. Joseph School, Wilby High School, and reminded her children that she had college credits before they were born from night school at the UConn Branch.

Nellie was a lifelong, faithful, and practicing parishioner of St. Joseph Church, and she loved to share stories of the time when Brooklyn was a city unto itself. She sang with the Parish Choir at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. During WWII, she assembled bomb fuses at Scovill.

She enjoyed listening to the Red Sox games as twilight fell, while she sat on the sun porch. She was determined to try for a "better" tomato from the garden every year, and loved to sit on the beach at Lake Quassapaug Outing Club and read her Sunday New York Times. She was an FDR Democrat to her dying breath. She was a member of The Knights of Lithuania and The Ladies Auxiliary of Brooklyn Valley VFW Post 7790.

Survivors include a daughter, Lillian Benesevich - with whom she resided, and a granddaughter, Izabela Benesevich, of Walbrzych, Poland.

She was predeceased by her brothers, John Arminas and Joseph Arminas, and her son, Richard Benesevich.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, at St. Joseph Church, 46 Congress Ave., Waterbury, at 10:00 AM. Friends are asked to meet directly at the Church. Burial will follow at Calvary Cemetery, 2324 E. Main St., Waterbury. Colasanto Funeral Home, 932, Bank St., Waterbury, is in care of all arrangements.

At the request of the family, memorial contributions may be made in Nellie's memory to St. Vincent DePaul Mission, p.o. box 1612, Waterbury, CT, 06706, Memo Soup Kitchen.

To leave online condolences, please visit us at www.colasantofh.com.

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