Surrounded by her family, Mrs. Evelyn S. Reto (nee Siegle), 87, passed away peacefully of complications related to Alzheimer’s on Monday, April 3, 2017 at her home in Verona.
Visitation will be at the Prout Funeral Home on Friday, April 7, 2017 from 5 to 9 p.m. A Traditional Latin Requiem Mass will be offered for her at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in North Caldwell on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 10 a.m.
Born in Newark, at Saint Michael’s Hospital in 1929, Mrs. Reto, known lovingly to all as Ev, grew up in East Newark, where she lived until her marriage in 1952 to her high school sweetheart, A. Joseph Reto. They moved to Kearny in 1954 where they lived until 1979. In that same year, she and her husband “Joe” relocated to Brielle. This fulfilled a lifelong dream of living close to the beach, in a community they had admired, and which they were proud to call home for the next three decades. They moved to Verona to live with their son Robert and his family in 2013.
Ev was gifted with a beautiful voice and a great vocal range. With the wounds of WWII healing as she graduated Harrison High School in 1947, she was asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner, for which she received great critical acclaim from Bishop Fulton Sheen, who was in attendance as the keynote speaker. Ev enjoyed music and studied voice and piano for many years. She especially loved Claude Debussy’s work, mastering Clair de Lune and playing it for her children and grandchildren in the early evening, enabling them to fall gently to sleep.
Mrs. Reto was predeceased by her husband, Anthony Joseph Reto and her older brother, Frederick Siegle. She is survived by her two sons, Robert Reto, his wife, Mary, and their children Miles and Matthew, along with her other son, Joseph Reto and his children Larissa and Landon. She is also survived by her “Big Sis”, Martha Finnegan of Port Charlotte, Fla.
Ev will be remembered for her very caring, warm and welcoming personality. Her graceful style and kindness defined a life committed to her family, always putting her personal needs far behind others, ensuring everyone else was comfortable and enjoying the home she had always created with Joe. She will be dearly missed by all who knew her. Rest well in our Lord’s Eternal Care, dear, sweet Evelyn.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001 would be appreciated.
