Rosalie Constance Corsiglia, known to family and friends as “Connie,” died on August 3, 2017, at Charlene Manor in Greenfield. Connie was born on July 1, 1926, in Greenfield, to Rosalie Stoddard Johnson and Alfred E. Johnson, of Hyde Park (Boston) and Dedham, respectively.
Connie was educated at the Bement School in Deerfield, Stoneleigh-Prospect Hill School (class of 1945) in Greenfield, and Ogontz Junior College in Rydal, Pa. (class of 1947). She was accepted to Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar, but did not attend. In her youth, Connie was an avid skier and golfer, and taught sailing at a summer camp on Cape Cod.
After graduating from Ogontz, Connie returned to Greenfield, where she worked for the Greenfield Recorder Gazette. In 1952, she married George Frederic Corsiglia, who died in 2001.
From 1952 to 1955, the couple lived in Newport, R.I., New York City, and the Panama Canal Zone as part of a U.S. Navy tour of duty, before returning to Greenfield where they raised five children. As a full-time stay-at-home mother, Connie was active as a volunteer in the Junior Branch, Board of Organized Work of the Franklin County Public Hospital, and enjoyed her involvement in their annual “Follies” variety show fundraiser.
Eventually, with her last child in elementary school, Connie found herself drawn into the retail world, initially as a sales assistant at the Mary Ellen Dress Shop and later with her own women’s clothing boutique, Cobblestones Ltd. But the educational world beckoned, and she migrated from retail into a long career in independent school admissions, serving as director of admissions of the Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield and subsequently in the same capacity for the Tuxedo School in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., and Linden Hall in Lititz, Pa.
Connie retired initially to Martha’s Vineyard, and later returned to Greenfield permanently and reimmersed herself in volunteer work and new passions. A lifelong learner, in retirement she returned to her college roots in studio art, and took up oil painting at age 75, driving herself to weekly adult classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and numerous art workshops and retreats. Her many still lifes and landscape paintings now adorn the walls of her children’s homes.
For many of the past 20 years, she was active as a member of the Deerfield Valley Arts Association, where she also served on the board. In addition, she served on the board of the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library, and actively engaged in their annual fundraising events.
Connie is survived by four children, Catherine Offenberg of Newton, Nancy Corsiglia of Washington, D.C., Constance (Betsy) Corsiglia of Oak Bluffs, and George Victor Corsiglia of Malden; two grandsons, Benjamin Offenberg of Venice, Calif., and Nicholas Offenberg of Williamsburg, N.Y.; a sister, Priscilla Sorrells of Phoenix, Ariz.; and several nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews. Her daughter Sarah Corsiglia died in 1983.
Funeral services were held on Saturday, August 12, at Saint James Episcopal Church in Greenfield, followed by burial at the Green River Cemetery. A reception followed at Caswell Room at Deerfield Academy.
The post Rosalie Constance Corsiglia appeared first on The Martha's Vineyard Times.