Priscilla A. (Weidner) Montefusco, who spent her working life at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and her retirement at the Chelsea Police Department front counter, the City Hall treasurer’s office and the Engine Four polling place on Sagamore Avenue, died on September 17 at her daughter’s home with her family around her. She was 87 and had lived in Chelsea all her life.
She was born in Boston on March 26, 1939, to Chester and Margaret (Quill) Weidner, and was raised in part by her stepmother, Eleanor (Doyle) Weidner. She went to Chelsea schools and graduated from Notre Dame Academy. In September 1962 she married Samuel A. Montefusco, and they had 48 years together until his death in 2009. They raised three children, Ellen, Karen and Eric, and the family’s Fourth of July gatherings at their Lash Street home were open to anyone who wanted to come.
Before the MWRA she worked at Leonard Silver and American Biltrite. After she retired she kept working for the city in one form or another: as an office clerk for the police, a volunteer in the treasurer’s office, a cafeteria worker at the old Mary C. Burke and Prattville schools, and for many years the poll warden at the Engine Four precinct. She belonged to the St. Rose Women’s Guild and the Our Lady of Grace Social Club and was a past president of the Don Guanella Center. She liked cruises with her daughter and son-in-law and Christmas in New York.
She is survived by her daughter Ellen Benson and her husband Greg of Peabody, her daughter Karen Buckley and her husband Chris of Saugus, and her son Eric Montefusco and his wife Patrice of Revere; six grandchildren, Christopher Benson and his wife Colleen Curran-Benson, Derek Buckley and his wife Kaitlyn, Brian Benson and his wife Jillian Ells-Benson, Samantha Montefusco, Erin Petrillo and her husband Anthony, and Scott Montefusco; five great-grandchildren, Mason, Noah and Lyla Curran-Benson and Olivia and Cameron Buckley; and her sisters Celia Cloutier and Virginia Dionne. Her sister Sally DeNisco and brother-in-law Bill DeNisco died before her, as did Celia’s husband Thomas.
Visiting hours are Thursday, September 24 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Welsh Funeral Home, 718 Broadway, Chelsea. The funeral leaves the funeral home Friday, September 25 at 10 a.m. for an 11 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Grace Church, 59 Nichols Street, with burial at Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett. The family asks for donations in her name to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the American Cancer Society.
Compiled from information published by Welsh Funeral Home, 718 Broadway, Chelsea, (617) 889-2723. Photograph courtesy of the family via Welsh Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.