Ruth F. Firkser of Port Washington, 95
Ruth Firsker. (2007 photo) Credit: Handout
Ruth Fontanetta Firkser, a longtime Port Washington resident, raised a family of five, enjoyed golf and reading -- and before and during World War II worked in Chicago for the Norwegian embassy.
But to Jennifer Fontanetta, her grandmother was a stylish friend and adviser.
Firkser, 95, died Tuesday of a stroke in Jupiter, Fla., where she moved 2 1/2 years ago to live with her son Michael Fontanetta.
"She had a great life," said Jennifer Fontanetta, 31, of Manhattan. "I'm happy and blessed her passing was quick and not painful" and that her family was at her bedside.
She and her grandmother became especially close, she said, when Fontanetta moved in 1999 from Florida to Long Island to attend Stony Brook University. During that time her grandmother regularly treated her and her roommates to dinner at restaurants.
She "loved to dress and go out," Fontanetta said, and recalls telling her grandmother of her own evening out celebrating Cinco de Mayo, only to be upstaged by Firkser, who, already in her 90s, had gone out with friends, drinking Coronas and dancing to a mariachi band.
Firkser also was a "dedicated golfer" and longtime member of the Plandome Country Club, said her son Peter Fontanetta, of Montclair, N.J.
Born Oct. 3, 1916, in Rockford, Ill., to Norwegian natives Petra and Andrew Olsen, Firkser moved to Chicago after high school, where she worked in administrative assistant roles for Dupont and for the Norwegian embassy, where she helped to find homes for Norwegian sailors whose ships had been sunk during World War II. It was in Chicago that she met her husband, Michael J. Fontanetta, who was attending medical school.
After the war the family moved to Ridgewood, Brooklyn; Holliswood, Queens; and Plandome Manor. Following the death of her husband in 1977, Firkser moved to Port Washington and later married George Firkser, who died in the early 1990s.
Besides her sons and granddaughter, she is survived by children Joan Fontanetta of Westhampton; Robert Fontanetta of upstate Cooperstown; John Fontanetta of Great Barrington, Mass.; seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Visiting hours will be Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Fairchild Funeral Chapel in Manhasset.
A funeral Mass will be Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Mary's Church in Manhasset, with burial in Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
