Obituary of Phyllis Siena

For Phyllis’s loved ones who are unable to attend her Service in person we will be live streaming starting at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, August 2^nd, please click on the link.

https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/8395927619

Phyllis Siena passed away peacefully at Wyncote Place Assisted Living, Wyncote, PA with her children by her side on July 29, 2023, a few weeks shy of her 97^th birthday. 

Phyllis was born on August 15, 1926, in Peckville, Pennsylvania to Rev. Frank and Santina Gambucci Passetti.  She was the 9^th of 10 children in a close and loving family.  The family moved to Newark, NJ while she was a teenager.  She graduated from West Side High School in 1944 and took a job with Public Service Electric and Gas Company.

Her sister Helen introduced Phyllis to Joseph Siena, the brother of her close friend Innocence.  It was love at first sight and they married on Valentine’s Day 1948.  They moved to Maplewood in 1962, where they raised their two children. For many years, she worked as a bookkeeper at Linker Machines.  After their retirement, she and Joe loved to travel and spend time with family and friends.  They had a close and loving partnership and were happily married for 52 years until his death in 2000.

Phyllis was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. Family meant everything to her.  She was a great cook who loved to entertain, particularly annual Christmas Eve dinners and summer backyard parties and cook-outs. 

Church was a very important part of Phyllis’ life, where she sang tenor in her church choir and in a trio with two of her sisters accompanied by a third sister on the piano. She enjoyed knitting, crocheting and doing needlepoint.     She loved spending time with her grandchildren, participating in their lives and activities, as well as spending time in RI with her daughter. She had a quick wit and an impish sense of humor.  She was a lifelong Yankees fan and watched every game with enthusiasm.  In 2012 she moved to Philadelphia to be closer to her son and his family. 

She is survived by her daughter, Santina Siena MD (Providence RI), her son Ronald Siena and his wife Laura (Philadelphia PA), her grandson Nicholas Siena MD and his fiancée Amy Copeland MD (Pittsburgh PA), and her granddaughter Anna-Claire Siena MD and her husband Torsten Odland (Los Angeles CA) as well as many nieces and nephews. 

In addition to her parents and husband, she was predeceased by her brothers John (Dorothy), Lee (Victoria) and Joseph (Alice) Passetti, and her sisters Theresa, Claire and Helen Passetti, Mary (Willard) Lake, Ruth (Samuel) Pasapane, and Marjorie (Frederick) Trunk.  She was also predeceased by her brother-in-law Ferdinand (Josephine) Siena, and sisters-in-law Christine (Joseph) Plunkett, Mary (Fernando) Spinosi and Innocence (Jack) Massimino. 

Funeral Service will be held at The Jacob A. Holle Funeral Home 2122 Millburn Ave, Maplewood NJ on Wednesday August 2, at 10 AM, followed by Interment at Hollywood Memorial Park and Cemetery 1500 Stuyvesant Ave, Union.  Visitation will be held at The Jacob A. Holle Funeral Home 2122 Millburn Ave, Maplewood on Tuesday August 1 from 4-7 PM. 

In lieu of flowers, the family would like to support The Penn Memory Center, an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.  Donations can be made by sending a check to:

Penn Medicine Development,Attn: Penn Memory Center, 3535 Market Street Suite 750 Philadelphia, PA 19104

Checks should be made payable to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania”.  Please note the “Penn Memory Center” on the memo line and indicate that this is in honor of “Phyllis Siena”