Angela (Scibilia) Iannello, who crossed the Atlantic alone at 18 speaking no English and built a family in Revere as a seamstress and homemaker, died at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, while visiting family. She was 86.
She was born on May 30, 1940 in Spadafora, a village near Messina in Sicily, the middle of five children of Carmelo and Annunziata “Nancy” (Biancuzzo) Scibilia, and grew up in the poverty of wartime Sicily. She sailed for Boston at 18. For two years she and her fiancé, Matteo Iannello, courted by letter across the ocean until they had saved enough for her to go home and marry him. They returned together and settled in Revere, where she raised three sons, sewed, cooked, danced, and kept her siblings close through every holiday.
Her husband of 44 years died before her. She leaves her sons, Thomas Iannello and his wife Michelle of Saugus, Carmen Iannello and his wife Shenda of Norfolk, Virginia, and Matthew Iannello and his wife Kim of Saugus; seven grandchildren, Kristen Harmon, Thomas M. Iannello, Jessica Scibetti, Erica Carter, Felicia Iannello, Gianna Hilaire and Sofia Iannello; four great-grandchildren, David, Parker, Ashton and Jamie; and her siblings Maria Cardone of Pelham, New Hampshire, Giuseppe “Anthony” Scibilia of Melrose and Eleonora Palladino of Melrose. Her sister Caterina Barberi died before her.
Visiting hours were held August 16 at the Vertuccio Smith and Vazza Beechwood Home for Funerals, 262 Beach Street, Revere, with a funeral Mass August 17 at Immaculate Conception Church and entombment at the Versailles Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett. The family suggests donations to the National Kidney Foundation.
Compiled from information published by Altmeyer Funeral Homes. Photograph courtesy of the family via Altmeyer Funeral Homes. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.