Maria Anna Pavesi (“Marie,” or “Grandma,” as all who knew her called her) passed away during a brief medical rehabilitation at Sippican Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. She was 93.
Marie was born at her parent’s home on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx on July 5, 1932, to Ursilia Licchiello (D’Agostino), a homemaker, and Mario Licchiello, the neighborhood butcher and owner of his own shop. In the Bronx’s Little Italy with her sister, Innocenza, and brother, Franco, the family lived across the street from the Bronx Zoo. Some of her earliest and fondest memories were of hearing the lions roar each night as she went to sleep. She spent her childhood safely tucked into the outskirts of the neighborhood drama. She’d share tales with grandchildren and great-grandchildren about the nuns who ran a tight ship at school, the Mafia that her father refused to kowtow to, shootouts between police and criminals on her garage roof, and standing up tall (at 4 foot 11) to anyone who caused her “agita.”
In her early twenties, she met and married the love of her life, Louis (“Louie”) Mario Pavesi. Shortly after marrying, they welcomed their only daughter, Inez Montanile (Pavesi) on Jan. 12, 1956. Grandma and Louie raised their daughter in Northvale/Norwood, N.J., a small suburb of New York City. Grandma often reminisced about her time in New Jersey raising her daughter, spending time with her “Wednesday girls,” and traveling both domestically and abroad with Louie’s employer, Hydrotherm. Regular visits to Italy with Louie and Inez, where they spent time with family in the old country, were the most cherished. Traveling by streamliner, they’d often bring home a quality European car in their luggage. The family’s annual trips to Martha’s Vineyard were also a bright spot, leading them to a place they would later call home.
Relocating in 1997, the couple joined their daughter’s family to establish the perfect multigenerational home coveted by their Italian roots. Louie and Marie would spend the rest of their lives on M.V., together as four generations.
For a tiny woman, Grandma had a giant personality. She was forthright with her opinions and her “tough guy” Bronx personality right up to the end. She loved her family, both past and present, and loved telling the stories of her long life. Days before she passed, she said, “I’m not ready to go; I’m having too much fun with my great-grandchildren. I don’t want to miss it.” She was loved deeply, and is missed more than she’ll ever know.
Marie was predeceased by her parents, Mario and Ursilia; her brother, Franco; her husband, Louis; and her daughter, Inez (Montanile). She was survived by her sister, Innocenza; son-in-law Matthew C. Montanile; grandchildren and their spouses: Matthew and Nina (Montanile), Michael and Jenna (Montanile), Kimberly and Nemo (Rajkovic); and great-grandchildren: Oliver and Leonardo (Montanile) and Milena (Rajkovic).
Services will be on Friday, Dec.12. A viewing at Chapman Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs from 9:30 to 10:30 am will be followed by an 11 am Mass at St. Augustine’s in Tisbury. Burial will be at Oak Grove Cemetery in Tisbury.
Visit chapmanfuneral.com for online guestbook and information.
