Jean M. (Riviello) Blasi

Jean Marie Blasi, 97, of Old Forge, passed away on Monday afternoon at her home with her children Tina and Joseph and her devoted caregiver.  Her husband, the love of her life, Angelo P. Blasi, passed away in July of 2022. They were married 74 years. Born in Old Forge, she was the daughter of the late Ralph Riviello and Eugenia Volpe Riviello, who had fourteen children. She was a graduate of Newton Ransom High School, where she was a women’s basketball player and interested in many sports. Her parents lived in Old Forge and in Newton Ransom until she was married and lived in the Hyde Park section of Scranton and moved to Moosic and then Old Forge. She enrolled briefly in Lackawanna Business College in the mid-1940s. She worked briefly in several textile factories in Scranton before having a family. She was devoted to her family and extended family and was known for wonderfully tasteful Italian meals and home parties and pool parties that regularly featured a cross-section of friends and family from Lackawanna County. She was deeply involved in the grade school and high school activities of her children at St. Mary’s Grade School in Avoca, Scranton Preparatory School, and St. John’s High School in Pittston.  She was an avid flower and vegetable gardener and a member of many garden and flower clubs. She and her husband contributed time to St. Joseph’s Center for many years.  She loved walking and could regularly be seen taking long walks in Moosic, Old Forge, and the beaches in San Juan and Boca Raton. Early in the fifties, her close relationship with a Mormon neighbor and extensive reading led her to a re-evaluation of conventional medicine and established practices of health and nutrition and wellness and she began a life-long study of these topics through an intensive program of reading and study and continuing education courses and personal meditation. She maintained an extensive and growing library until recently. She practiced a natural and organic food diet and vegetarianism.  As part of this deep interest, she made herself available to family, friends, and associates for nutritional discussions and food and vitamin-based nutritional improvement.  Everyone remembers her ‘friendly lectures.”  She was decades ahead of the larger interest in our society in these issues. Jean is widely remembered as a person who always had time to talk through life’s difficulties with the lonely, the needy, the troubled and confused. Whether it was in the Scranton area or during her many years of summer retirement in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico or Boca Raton, Florida with her husband, she could always be found talking intently with someone who welcomed her warmth, her capability to listen endlessly, and her real help.  As she aged, she would spend many hours of the days talking with family and friends about their health, their nutrition, and their lives on the telephone.  She was giving, affectionate, loving, and kind to everyone. She was a devoted member of St. Mary’s Parish in Old Forge, St. Lucy’s Roman Catholic Church Hyde Park, and St. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church in Avoca and had a deep involvement with members of the Jesuit Community of Scranton Prep and the University of Scranton, who were regular guests at her and her husband’s table. They were close friends with three Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) at Marywood College and in West Scranton, and she and her husband and children would drive these sisters to their summer vacation in Port Jervis each summer for many years. She is survived by her daughter Tina and her husband Dr. Dwight Wooster, her son Dr. Joseph Blasi and his wife Nancy Bonus and their son Teddy. She deeply appreciated the support of the family caregiver, Rhonda Wright, over the last few years. Rhonda helped Jean and Angelo in Florida and moved with them to Old Forge and has become a cherished member of the family. She was pre-deceased by her sisters, Angelina Guariglia, Minnie Maccione, Rose Asaro, Mary Alessandri, Ann Gianti, and Louise Riviello, and her brothers, Vito Riviello, Frank Riviello, Joseph Riviello, John Riviello, and Louis Riviello.  She is survived by her brother Ralph Riviello and his wife Pat and her sister Sistine Policare.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday April 15 at 11 a.m., in St. Lucy’s Church, 949 Scranton Street, West Scranton.  There will be no viewing. There is a visitation hour from 10 a.m. to 11. a.m. at the Church. Entombment will take place in Cathedral Cemetery in West Scranton.  Her family welcomes her relatives, friends, acquaintances and all of the people she has loved and helped over her long and productive life to attend the funeral Mass. Donations in honor of Jean should be directed to Sacred Heart Hospice, 100 Williams Street, Dunmore, Pa. 18510.

Arrangements and care provided by Savino Traditional Funerals and Cremation Care, West Scranton, Carl J. Savino, Jr., Supervisor. To offer a condolence, please visit www.WestScrantonFunerals.com.

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