Rose Iamesi: Former Copiague school worker was lucky in love

Copiague's Rose Iamesi, who loved to dance and play bocce ball, died on April 1. Credit: Iamesi Family
Some people live their entire lives without ever finding their soul mate. Rose Iamesi clearly beat the odds.
“She was lucky enough to find love twice,’’ said Iamesi’s daughter, Mary Czeisel, of Lindenhurst. “After my dad died, she met a man named Sal Perricone at the [Tanner Park] Senior Center, and moved in with him for a while. He was very important to her.’’
Iamesi and Perricone never did marry, but they lived together for 10 years, Czeisel said. Eventually, Iamesi developed Alzheimer’s disease, and the couple could no longer take care of each other. Perricone moved to Florida to be with his family, and he died in 2016. Iamesi, a longtime resident of Copiague, stayed on Long Island. She died on April 1 due to complications from COVID-19, her daughter said. She was 89.
She was born Rose Macchio on Feb. 21, 1931, in New York City, the daughter of immigrants from Bari, Italy. She went to trade school and after graduation worked in the insurance industry. She married Charles Iamesi on Feb. 15, 1953.
The couple lived in Jackson Heights and Maspeth in Queens and moved to Copiague in the mid-1960s. She worked many years for the Copiague schools, first as a cafeteria aide and later as a security guard. Charles, who died in 1997, had been involved with the Copiague Youth League, the town’s youth athletic association, where he coached football and baseball. Rose got involved, too, according to her daughter, Eugenia Freyer of East Islip.
“My mom used to help my dad out a lot,’’ Freyer said. “There was a concession shed they call ‘The Hut.’ My mom would volunteer to work there. Whenever he was down there [coaching] she was there.’’
According to her daughters, Rose loved to dance and play bocce ball. And she loved the senior center, where she was able to do both. She played bocce with Sal, Czeisel said.
“I guess it was a senior center thing,’’ Czeisel said. “The senior centers all got together and they had playoffs.’’
Rose Iamesi is survived by her two daughters, Mary Czeisel, and her husband, Bob, and Eugenia (Gina) Freyer, and her husband John; two sons, Alphonse Iamesi and his wife, Donna, of Deltona, Florida, and Vincent Iamesi and his wife, Michele, of Farmingville; and 11 grandchildren.