Nancy Samaritano, 72

Nancy Marie Samaritano of Richland, Washington died at Kadlec Hospital on October 20th, 2011, at the age of 72, after a long series of illnesses.

Nancy was born in Corning, New York on September 13, 1939 to Grace and Michael Hickey. In 1957, she graduated from Northside High School, so named because it was on the north side of the Chemung River.

On November 9, 1963 Nancy married John Samaritano and they lived in Schenectady, NY and Clifton Park, NY for 17 years, where they raised two sons. While in Clifton Park, she was an active hostess and supporter of the Fresh Air Fund, which enabled inner city youths from New York City a chance to spend part of their summer with a host family in the beautiful northern part of New York State. Nancy was also an active supporter of the Schenectady Light Opera Company, and played a critical role in her two sons's participation in various youth hockey travel teams which played around the Northeast. Nancy was the key means of transportation on many a weekend, early morning and late nights.

While raising two children, Nancy was a Medical Laboratory Technician at hospitals in the Schenectady area. She decided to attend university and became a freshman student at the age of 39. She graduated in 1985 with a Bachelors of Science in Biology from Washington State University, and completed her education in 1990 with a Master of Science in Veterinary Science from Washington State University.

In 1980, Nancy moved with her family to Richland. She originally lived on Spring Street for ten years. Then she and her husband, John, decided to design a beautiful custom built home in Hills West on Adair Drive.

Nancy had many interests over the years. Some of them included collecting Native American woven baskets, collecting antique brilliant cut glass from her hometown of Corning, NY, and her son's youth sports as well as other sports. But her real passion remained cooking. Nancy was very proud of her capabilities as well as her collection of cookbooks, and her ancient file box filled with handwritten recipes. While she enjoyed many years of cooking and entertaining, her health issues over the last ten years limited her to enjoying cooking shows and she compensated by becoming an amateur cooking show critic. Nancy was fond of animals and always maintained a presence of various cats in the Clifton Park and Richland houses. Her love of cats led her first to three different Siamese cats and in later years to her two big red Maine Coon Cats, Mario and Marco. Over the years she had various trekkers and hunters who would bring home chipmunks, birds and even snakes.

Over the years, Nancy participated in parish choirs and loved to sing. She loved classical music, musicals, and was generally fond of good harmony. In Richland, Nancy was a longtime parishioner at Christ the King Catholic Church. In 2008, Nancy became an Oblate of Mt. Angel Abbey in Benedictine, Oregon.

Nancy is survived by her husband of 48 years, John; her sons Evan and Michael; Michael's wife, Uschi, and her three grandchildren, Thomas, Caitlin and Grace. Nancy is also survived by her big brother Jack and dear friend and sister, Marge. Nancy was preceded by her elder brother Allen.

Memorial services will be held at Christ the King Catholic Church on Friday October 28 at 11:00 AM.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, thoughts and prayers.