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AIRMONT, N.Y. – Anne Claudia Grassi, a resident of Airmont and formerly of Closter, died Saturday, July 2. She was 83.
Born Oct.8, 1932, in the Bronx, she was the daughter of Sarah and Anthony Grassi.
She grew up on Arthur Avenue and studied art at Washington Irving High School in Greenwich Village. After graduating, she went to work as an administrator at the NBC Radio Network in Manhattan, where she later understudied with the famous talk show star Jinx Falkenburg.
While working at NBC, she met Anthony Piano; they married and started a family in 1955. She put her career on hold to raise three children, eventually making her way back to WNBC radio, the flagship station of the NBC radio network.
She was a Closter resident for many years and helped lobby the Closter Zoning Board to allow Spectrum to build a residential facility for developmentally disabled adults against the protestations of many Closter residents, who were afraid of a residence for disabled people in town.
She is survived by her son Mark Piano; daughter Claudia Piano; son-in-law Michael Dryden; husband Anthony Piano; nieces, Jessica, Jennifer, Cheryl, Andrea; and nephews, Robert and Erik.
She was predeceased by her daughter Jane Piano; sisters, Connie Reilly and Janet Johnson; and brother Robert Grassi.
A wake will be conducted from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at Pizzi Funeral Home, 120 Paris Ave., Northvale, N.J. A funeral service will be officiated by Pastor Angela Maddalone at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Pizzi Funeral Home. She will be entombed next to her daughter, Jane, in the Garden of Memories, 300 Soldier Hill Road, Township of Washington, N.J.
Memorials may be given to The Jane Piano Memorial Foundation, a fund established to help honor her and raise money for the developmentally disabled.
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