Anna Elizabeth Severino
May 29, 1921 - June 22, 2021
Palm Springs California
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Anna Elizabeth Severino
May 29, 1921 - June 22, 2021
Palm Springs California
Obituary
Ann Severino was born May 29, 1921 in Albion, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of her Catholic Italian parents Assunda (Mazzarella) Croce and Vito Croce, who immigrated from Italy years earlier. She has two brothers: Sam Croce, who lives in Palm Springs, CA, and Fred Croce (deceased). Ann Severino was raised in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She married Murrie Severino on May 29, 2948 and gave birth to one son Bob on June 19, 1954. They moved to Palm Springs in 1956, where she spent the rest of her life. She recently managed to enjoy her 100th birthday, which was a unique milestone in our family.
Creative Ann
She exercised her extremely creative talents often, and over her life she crafted hand-made peignoir nightgown sets, formal dress jackets, ceramic nativity sets and Christmas figurines, portiere curtains, hand painted wall and ceiling murals, wooden jigsaw puzzles, and 95 batches of home-made limoncello and other fruit liquors. She was also an avid baker and pasta maker. She loved raising yellow flowers and yellow-gold was her favorite color. The family loved its vacation trips to Italy, and mom visited six times. Her last trip to Tuscany was at the age of 90, where she still managed to keep up a walking pace with our traveling friends with only the aid of a cane. Here favorite spot in Italy was Villa Il Giardino in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, and her dining room and kitchen reflects the lemon yellow and cobalt blue sea motif made popular by that ideal Neapolitan destination.
Musical Ann
Ann’s husband Murrie was the first choir director of the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Palm Springs over 60 years ago, and Ann was also a founding member of that first choir. She continued to sing with that group at high mass right up through 2020, and 56 of her favorite religious hymns with her singing in the choir can be found at:
Spiritual Ann
At an early age Ann joined the Legion of Mary, which is the largest apostolic organization of lay people in the Catholic Church and is designed to serve God under the banner of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. As a member of the Legion of Mary young Ann said a rosary on a daily basis.
When she became a wife and mother, Ann increased her daily rosary count to four, one each for her husband Murrie, son Bob, mother Assunda and father Vito. She kept up this regiment each day throughout her entire life, aggregating more than 100,000 rosaries. Even during the last week of her life, when at night she would say a rosary with her son Bob, she would tell him, “That was my Legion of Mary Rosary.”
Ann was also a member of the St. Theresa Altar Society, having served as its past President, and was recently honored for 50 years of service to that organization.
She would also bless her self each night with a drop of the water taken from the springs of Lourdes, France where St. Bernadette beheld the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes. She obtained this water back in 1970 from our family visit to this sacred sanctuary sight. On this same trip she was in a select audience with Pope Paul VI, and years later received a special blessing from Pope John Paul II for her religious service.
It was this vehicle of daily devotion and meditative prayer through the rosary that gave Ann her optimistic perspective on life, her enduring smile whenever she greeted you, and her deep concern and prayers for the sad trials being faced by others she met. She had an attitude of never worrying about the “small stuff”, because she understood that compared with the illumination of an eternal spiritual existence, matters of this physical world are all small stuff.
A salutation she often used upon hugging you goodbye was, “”May you always be in God’s friendship”.
Now, help us pay tribute to this joyful, effervescent and worthy soul, and please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I believe she is still watching over all of us from her elevated vantage point.
-Bob
Rosary
- Date & Time: July 8, 2021 (9:30 AM)
- Venue: St. Kilian Catholic Church
- Location: 26872 Estanciero Drive Mission Viejo, CA 92691 - (Get Directions)
- Phone Number: (949) 586-4440
Funeral Mass
- Date & Time: July 8, 2021 (10:00 AM)
- Venue: St. Kilian Catholic Church
- Location: 26872 Estanciero Drive Mission Viejo, CA 92691 - (Get Directions)
- Phone Number: (949) 586-4440
Rosary
- Date & Time: July 15, 2021 (8:30 AM)
- Venue: St. Theresa Catholic Church
- Location: 2800 Ramon Road Palm Springs, CA 92264 - (Get Directions)
Funeral Mass
- Date & Time: July 15, 2021 (9:00 AM)
- Venue: St. Theresa Catholic Church
- Location: 2800 Ramon Road Palm Springs, CA 92264 - (Get Directions)
Graveside Service
- Date & Time: July 15, 2021 (12:00 PM)
- Venue: Desert Memorial Park
- Location: 31705 Da Vall Cathedral City, CA 92234 - (Get Directions)
- Phone Number: (760) 328-3316
1 responses to Anna Elizabeth Severino
Cathy Cody Nemirovsky says:
July 14, 2021
Many heartfelt condolences to you Bob, and your uncle Sam, for the loss of your most loving mom and sister Ann, an illuminating soul. Love, Cathy Cody