Eugenia ‘Jenny’ Viscariello, 81, who with her family opened Mamma Mia’s in 1974, died on Saturday, June 6 surrounded by her family after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 81.
Born in Bucciano, Italy on May 7, 1945 to Pasquale Benedetto and Carmina Arganese, she was the daughter of a farmer and learned at a young age how to tend to a garden. When her mother became ill when she was just nine years old, Eugenia learned how to take care of her. For ten years, she cared for her mother, while continuing to work on the farm, bringing produce to the market to help support her family.
In January 1967, not long after her mother died, Eugenia married Giovanni Viscariello and moved to the U.S. where the settled in Plymouth. She first worked as a seamstress, but in 1974 she and her husband, along with her brother and sister-in-law, opened Mamma Mia’s in Kingston, named in honor of her mother-in-law.
She is remembered for her cooking, her love of gardening, knitting, hosting Christmas Eve, traveling, weekly card games, bowling, and women’s league meetings.
She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Giovanni ‘John’ Viscariello; her sons, Antonio ‘Tony’ and his wife, Anathea and John and his wife, Danielle; her five grandchildren, Ariana and her husband, Andrew, Nicholas, Nathan, Alessandra and Johnny, and her great grandson, Henry Giovanni. She is also survived by her “honorary” daughter, Raffaella Bloomer and her niece, Anna, as well as many other nieces and nephews and cousins; her brother and sister in laws, Pasquale and Francesca and Domenic and Fay Viscariello and her sister-in-law, Chicchina Cirillo. She was preceded in death by her brother, Domenico Benedetto.
Visiting hours will be 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, June 12 at Cartmell-Davis Funeral Home, 373 Court Street, Plymouth. A funeral mass will be 10 a.m. Saturday, June 13 at St. Mary Church, 313 Court Street, Plymouth. A private burial service at Vine Hills Cemetery will follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Eugenia’s name may be made to The National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation or to the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth.