Lena Costanzo “never said no to anything,” whether it was river rafting in her 80s or dancing when she was “north of 100,” said her grandson-in-law, Joe Danni of Gunnison.
Costanzo’s family said she was 107 when she died on April 26. They got her birth records from Sicily so she could apply for Social Security.
Costanzo was so healthy all her life that “we used to think she was bulletproof,” Danni said. For years, family members gathered for birthday parties thinking “this may be her last.”
Her mind was still in good shape until the last few weeks of her life. She had helped with the caretaking of her ailing daughter, Marie Spencer in Gunnison, where they shared an assisted-living apartment.
Family members love stories about Costanzo, such as her trip to San Francisco where she traipsed the streets with granddaughters who were half her age, which was then 87.
When they returned to her granddaughter’s house the younger women nearly collapsed with exhaustion, but Costanzo started making spaghetti, did some ironing and asked if there was mending she could do, recalled her granddaughter Priscilla Jones of Gunnison, one of the exhausted.
Only 5 feet tall and about 100 pounds, Costanzo loved to cook but never ever used butter, said her great-grandson Gannon Mendez of Perkins, Okla.
She nibbled at the rich foods she cooked, and chastised guests who stopped at one plateful. “You don’t like my cooking?” she’d ask them. She kept up a years-long regimen of exercise until shortly before her death, Jones said.
Two things she never missed were Johnny Carson and the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” Two things scared her: lightning and thunder. She’d get her rosary beads and head for the closet where she kept a chair, said Gannon Mendez.
Costanzo helped her husband in his various businesses. He had a pool hall and a dance hall in Rockvale, where she collected a nickel for each dancing customer. Later, they had a pool hall in Salida, and they then owned a general store and boarding house in Sargents.
“She was everyone’s grandma,” Jones said. When family members came to her with problems, she told them to keep loving and forgiving, Jones said.
Costanzo was “fussy” about clothes and makeup and didn’t make an appearance in the morning until she looked perfect, said her daughter Margie Hill-Hoffman of Studio City, Calif.
Antonina Fazzino was born in Santa Ninfa, Sicily, on Feb. 4, 1903.
She came to this country with her grandparents, Biaggio and Antonina Fazzino, following the deaths of her parents when she was a child. The family had a 27-day ship ride and spent weeks at Ellis Island before coming to Colorado when she was 9.
She learned dressmaking and did that before her marriage on Jan. 4, 1923, to Frank Costanzo, who was from her hometown.
She and her husband made their final home in Gunnison, where Frank Costanzo opened a pool hall, liquor store, a wholesale beer business, and built one of Gunnison’s first motels.
He had three children from a previous marriage. He and his three children preceded her in death.
In addition to her daughters, she is survived by 15 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
