Anne M Gaffney

October 18, 1925 - May 30, 2018

Anne Mastrangelo Gaffney of Albany, who used an artisan's sensibility and a teacher's commitment to shape a life of love and learning for a successful and boisterous clan in Albany's Pine Hills neighborhood, died May 30 at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland, New York. She was 92. Anna Mastrangelo was born in her parents’ home in Pelham, New York, on Sunday, October 18, 1925. She was the sixth and youngest child of Michael Mastrangelo and Maddolena Paolone Mastrangelo. Anne’s parents were themselves born to families of artisans and raised in small Italian towns in the province of Molise. As young adults, they emigrated separately, Michael landing at Ellis Island in 1904 with $3, Maddolena in 1911 with $20. The couple had never met in Italy, but they were soon introduced to each other and united in an arranged marriage. As artisani, the Mastrangelos built a successful life in Pelham, then one of the most prosperous towns in Westchester County. Maddolena designed and made clothing, mostly for private clients. Michael, who had been a shoemaker in Italy, worked with his relatives in their shoe repair shop in the Bronx. Anne Mastrangelo entered this environment of craftsmanship and work ethic in near silence, a shy child who often clung to her mother's hand and seldom said much. Pelham's public schools and Anne’s flowering love of learning soon trumped the early diffidence. First at the Hutchinson School and later at Pelham Memorial High School, she ranked high in her class. In 1943, she earned recognition as the top girl student in Pelham High School. A plaque there still attests to this. In these early years, she formed a lifelong friendship with a neighborhood pal Phoebe Davis Sweetland. With academic achievement came a lifelong feistiness and competitive spirit that showed itself in her schoolgirl athletic pursuit, field hockey, a game in which competitors use sticks to whack one another and, from time to time, a ball. After high school, Anne moved to Albany to pursue a bachelor's degree in English and French at the University at Albany, which was then called State Teachers College. After completing student teaching at the former Milne School in Albany and at Philmont in Columbia County, she earned her degree in 1947. During those years, like many of her contemporaries, she enjoyed refreshments and the social scene at Stittig's, the landmark Madison Avenue ice cream parlor. A stunning and vibrant young woman, Anne caught the eye of a soda jerk named Bill Gaffney, who shared her intellect, love of learning, and playful spirit. Although, having been distracted by a ball game, he was reportedly two hours late for their first date, Anne’s feisty good humor prevailed. The friends and soulmates were married in Pelham on August 6, 1949. Anne and Bill Gaffney launched teaching careers together at the public school in Galway, Saratoga County. They shared a classroom and a desk, with Anne teaching English while Bill taught history and coached sports. As was the custom in those days, after Anne became pregnant, she was no longer permitted to teach and was asked instead to serve as school secretary. Their first daughter Catherine was born, and the family soon landed in a single-family home in Albany's Pine Hills neighborhood, a thriving haven for large, lively, and loud families. Anne settled into the life of a wife, mom, and homemaker, bearing and raising seven children as Bill moved into a successful career in banking. She never abandoned pedagogy. Instead, in manifestation of her lifelong commitment, Anne focused her teaching skill and creative spirit on her children and their friends. For example, the kids were learning to read before kindergarten, and Anne reinforced the lessons by buying them "Think and Do" workbooks. In those days, these books were a common component of educational drills for schoolchildren, if not for tykes. Anne used the daily family ritual of dinner as a teaching opportunity. She taught the kids manners – one kid talking at any one time is enough – and word games before cleanup reinforced some English lessons. Anne also used her teaching skills to share with her children her considerable gifts in the arts. From her family's history as artisans – silversmith, clothing designer, shoemaker – she inherited a talent for visual arts. From a mother who sang operatic works around the house and relatives who gathered round the piano to sing, she inherited a love of music and a fearlessness in singing. So she sang. Anne routinely burst into songs from popular musicals. She often chose songs to communicate parental advice or conduct marital advocacy – as when she sang "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," from Annie Get Your Gun, to a husband deemed to be mishandling a paint roller. She could play the piano. And she could dance. She taught her youngest child, Margaret, to waltz and jitterbug around a kitchen cluttered with furniture. No injuries were reported. Naturally, she encouraged her children to pursue the arts as well. They responded. One is a playwright. Another studied ballet. Two others became successful professional musicians at the highest level. Anne showed her own talent in visual arts – painting creditable landscapes in oils after the children were abed, designing a prom dress for her daughter Susan, overseeing a redesign of the living room from 1940s cottage-style home to a more modern décor. Like most teachers in those days, Anne delivered discipline with comparable skill and resolve. Her children remember marching into Sunday Mass in order of height. They also remember that any fidgeting was stilled immediately by a silent steely glare from Anne's green eyes. Anne was also a relentlessly active mom. She cooked legendary pasta dinners and ensured that annual vacations in Lake George or Cape Cod ended without fatalities. She often walked, piling the kids into the car for romps in Washington Park in Albany or in nearby Thatcher Park on the Helderberg Escarpment. She also shared her gifts and hospitality with friends and neighbors. She supervised annual back-yard parties for her family and their friends that were so popular that some of the kids' friends continued to attend – long after their Gaffney contact had moved out of town. And during the legendary Thanksgiving snowstorm of 1971, when she learned that a neighborhood family had its meal plans ruined by the weather, Anne found room for half a dozen more seats at the table, pulled off some loaves-and-fishes legerdemain with her turkey, and invited the Walsh clan to trudge through the snow and dine at her table. All gave thanks. Amid all these family obligations, Anne found time and energy to serve her community. She returned to the classroom to teach English to bankers every Wednesday night for several years in a continuing education program offered through the American Institute of Banking. (One smiles to picture a gray-flannel branch manager diagramming a sentence.) She also served as an officer with the Albany Jayncees in the 1960s and in the PTA at Vincentian Institute. Throughout her life, Anne Gaffney moved with a quiet grace that was supported by her solid and thoughtful faith. She was a devout Catholic whose faith in the power of prayer expressed gratitude in good times and carried her through difficult times, including daily bedside time during the final wearying months of her son's illness and her husband’s long decline. "The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes," the architect Frank Lloyd Wright once mused. "If you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life." In her family, her home, and her professional and creative pursuits, Anne Gaffney, the daughter of artisans, always invested in – and, in every way, mirrored – beauty. Anne Gaffney is survived by her children: Catherine Rogers of New York City; Bill Gaffney Jr. of Albany; Mick (Kate) Gaffney of Parsippany, New Jersey; Susan Bossa of Braintree, Massachusetts; James (Tammy) Gaffney of Rochester; and Margaret Cozzens of Clifton Park. She leaves grandchildren Josh (Alexa), Kacie (Dave), Chris, Leanne (Rick), Meghan, Will, Maria, Chris, Billy, and David; great-grandchildren Paityn, Sienna, AJ, Nico, Brady, and Aria; and 6 nieces and nephews. Her husband, Bill Gaffney, died in 2010. Their son John Gaffney, a classical pianist, died in 1990. A funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 am on Monday, June 4, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Albany. Burial will be at St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands. Calling hours will be 4-7 p.m. Sunday, June 3, in the Magin and Keegan Funeral Home, 891 Madison Ave, Albany. Memorial contributions may be made to Our Lady of Mercy Life Center, 2 Mercycare Lane, Guilderland, NY 12084. The family thanks the many physicians, nurses, and health care professionals who gave Anne compassionate care for 7 years at Our Lady of Mercy.