Marie Esposito of Wantagh: Raised 6 children, loved Jones Beach and Paul Newman
Marie Esposito "didn't just love to jump in the waves,'' said her daughter, Barbara Goercke, of Centerport. "She wanted to swim laps in the ocean.'' Credit: Jeanne Evans
Marie Esposito was not a large woman, but she packed a wallop.
“She was small, but she was strong,’’ said her daughter, Jeanne Evans, of Robbinsville, New Jersey. “One day she went outside, in her bathrobe, to get the newspaper, and the door locked behind her. This was before cellphones, and she didn’t go to one of the neighbors for help. Instead, she went back to the house and she broke the door down with her shoulder. And then, when she got inside, she called my brother and said, ‘The door’s broken.’
“We don’t know how she did it,’’ Evans said with a laugh. “As she got older, sometimes she’d say, ‘Ow, my shoulder hurts.’ ’’
Esposito, of Wantagh, died on April 26, at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson, due to complications from the coronavirus, her family said. She was 87.
Marie Esposito was born on Aug. 1, 1932, in Brooklyn, to Charles and Gertrude Pelton. She attended Manual Training High School in Brooklyn and graduated a year early, in 1949. She attended Hunter College, in Manhattan, for a year, before leaving to take a job in the personnel department for MetLife Insurance Company. In 1955, she married John Esposito, and they moved to Wantagh, where they raised six children.
She was athletic and wrote poems when she was younger, her family said. And she loved Jones Beach.
“She didn’t just love to jump in the waves,’’ said her daughter, Barbara Goercke, of West Sayville. “She wanted to swim laps in the ocean.’’
After her children grew up, Esposito went back to work, first as a bank teller, and later as a secretary for several brokerage firms. She loved bridge, she loved Frank Sinatra, and she loved the movie star Paul Newman.
“Anytime she left the house, when we were kids, she’d say, ‘If Paul Newman calls, take a message and tell him I’ll call him back,’ ’’ Goercke recalled.
In her later years, Esposito began to suffer from dementia, and she spent the final 3½ years of her life at The Bristal at Massapequa.
Other survivors include her husband, John Esposito, of Wantagh; son John Esposito Jr., of Asbury, New Jersey; daughters Joanne Scopa (and husband John), of Catskill, New York; and Nancy Esposito, of Centerport; . She was predeceased by her son, James Esposito, who died last fall of cancer, and by her sister, Jean Hughes. She is also survived by nine grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
