Viola M. Celli

Viola, born May 30, 1920 in Edenborn, Pennsylvania, accompanied her family to the Youngstown area at 5 years of age. She was a descendant of Albert and Flora (Dunn) Marconi, the third of their six children and the last to enter into eternal life.

Her education was obtained in a combination of parochial as well as public schools and culminated in her placing fourth in her graduating class from East High School in June 1938. Being proud of her alma mater and classmates, she became an active core member of their reunion committee for over 60 years.

Viola's work history began with employment from Gatschene-Mitchell Studio, where she was accomplished at hand-processing negatives and manually developing professional photography. On October 11, 1947, she married James W. Celli, then relocated to Michigan where she began her own family. However, she returned to Youngstown with her only child following the October 13, 1949 automobile accident that claimed her husband's life. She subsequently took jobs at the Strouss Hirschberg Company in retail service, a private business doing bookkeeping and eventually the Retail Clerks Health & Welfare Fund as an office manager in their self-insurance division.

After moving to Poland, Ohio, Viola embarked on another interesting stage of life by retiring in her late sixties. She enjoyed traveling on day trips, cruises, as well as far away destinations she accessed by air. She had always wanted to meet and visit with her paternal relatives in Padua, Italy and had plans in progress for the fall of 2001. They were disrupted, however, by the happenings of September 11th and never materialized. Viola always kept herself busy by participating in many group activities from bowling, dancing and the like to socializing with old and newly made friends through senior citizens organizations and functions such as playing cards, planning luncheons with former classmates, etc. She used to joke that she never needed a day planner until she retired!

Besides her parents, husband, and in-laws, Viola was preceded in death by two older siblings, Albert and Margaret, as well as siblings that she liked to "mother" and that enriched her existence over the years, Gloria Rubosky, Attelio "Teo" and Albert Marconi.

Viola bore the burdens of declining physical and mental abilities with dignity, strength and humor. Her well lived life came to an end on October 28, 2016 at the age of 96. Sorrowfully mourning her departure are her daughter, Karin and son-in-law, Donald, and grandsons, James "Jay" and Bradley Leone. Other remaining relatives include a sister-in-law, Helen Marconi, along with three generations of nieces and nephews as well as one of her lasting remaining life-long friends, Anthony Giampetro. All, with many close friends, will forever miss Vi's perpetual love.

Her memory will be honored by a visitation during the hours of 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Davis-Becker Funeral Home, 8536 Market St. in Boardman.

A prayer service will be held on Thursday at 9:15 a.m. at the funeral home followed by a Mass of Christian Burial on Thursday at 10 a.m. at Holy Family Church in Poland with Fr. Kevin Peters and Fr. James Korda as celebrants. Interment will be next to her beloved husband on Friday at 1 p.m. at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Michigan.

Please visit www.beckerobits.com to send condolences.