Josephine Bevacqua, 100, GOP worker

Josephine M. “Jo” Bevacqua of 3 Glen Hill Road, Danbury, a former Ridgefielder who had been active in the Republican Party much of her life, died on Sunday morning, June 24, at Laurel Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center. She was 100 years old and the widow of Albert Bevacqua.
Mrs. Bevacqua had marked her 100th birthday on Sept. 24, 2000, with a party at the Silver Spring Country Club here. Nearly 50 family members and friends attended from as far away as Texas and New Hampshire.
Asked then about the secret to her longevity, she replied, “Live a normal life, treat everybody fairly, have a party when the family is around on a holiday, and stay politically active.
“That’s a must,” she added. “Stay politically active.”
Mrs. Bevacqua had been just that. A resident of Hawthorne, N.Y., from 1932 to 1985, Mrs. Bevacqua was local Republican Party leader and a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals there. When she came to Ridgefield in 1985, she aided the party here and served as a justice of the peace.
“If there were not two zeros in my years, maybe I could squeeze in some political activities,” she said at her 100th birthday party. “But I’m too old.”
Born in Mineville, N.Y., on Sept. 29, 1900, she was a daughter of Joseph and Catherine Biamonte Merante. She attended local schools and was a homemaker most of her life.
She had been a member of St. Mary’s Church here.
Mrs. Bevacqua’s survivors include her daughter, Joyce B. Robichaud of Ridgefield; a son, Albert Bevacqua of Carmel, N.Y.; a sister, Lena Trotter, formerly of Mount Kisco, N.Y.; five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Wednesday in St. Mary’s Church.
Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, N.Y.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.