Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Monroe) Serafini died on Friday, Feb. 19, at the age of 96 while residing at St. Joseph’s Manor in Trumbull, CT. Dr. Monroe was born September 25, 1919, in Harrisburg, PA, the only child of John J. Monroe, an engineer with the Reading Railroad, and Elizabeth C. (Snyder) Monroe.
Dr. Monroe was educated in the Harrisburg schools. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Westchester State Teacher’s College (now Westchester University) in Pennsylvania. Returning to Harrisburg, she taught music education and served as choral director. She also taught music education as music director in the Rehoboth Beach Schools in Delaware. Later, she was employed by Theodore Presser & Co., a noted classical music publishing firm in Philadelphia.
She earned her doctorate in music education at the Columbia School of Music in New York City. For many years, she resided in Hartsdale and then Bayside, NY, where she served as director of music education in the Great Neck School District until her retirement.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Amilcare Serafini, a cosmetician in Bayside; and cousins, Jeanne Hassan and Janet Williams. She is survived by her three cousins, Carol Wood of Culpeper, VA, Thomas Weiss of Savannah, GA, and Timothy Weiss of Fairfield, CT; and her second cousins, Katlin and Nicole of Culpeper, VA.
Friends are invited to attend the funeral on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 11 a.m. at St. Luke Church in Westport, CT, for a mass and Christian burial. Interment will be held in Holy Cross Cemetery in Harrisburg, PA, on Monday, Feb. 29, at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association: PO Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090.
To send an online condolence, visit www.shaughnesseybanks.com.
