Thursday, October 1, 2026
Antoinette Grieco, 107, a longtime Lynbrook resident, grew up in the village when it was mostly farmland and the Long Island Rail Road was on ground level. She remembered the little wooden schoolhouse with an outhouse was in the parking lot. “I loved school,” she recalled in a 2009 Herald story about her life. “When it was bad weather, my father would tell my mother not to send us to school ... I didn’t like that — I begged him to let me go!”
Grieco died on May 9 at White Oaks Nursing Home in Woodbury.
She was born Antoinette DeMilia on Jan. 23, 1903, in Boston, Mass., to Salvatore and Maura DeMilia, one of six children. The family moved in 1911 to Lynbrook, where she attended school through sophomore year. At her family’s urging she went to work, first at odd jobs, including sewing, she later went to business school and became a stenographer for an accounting firm in Jamaica. To her utter disappointment, she was never able to finished high school.
In 1926, she married Edward Catena, an accountant. They had four daughters — Vivian, Dolores, Janet, and Ronnie — all of whom went on to higher education. Her husband died in 1958, and she later married Victor Grieco, the widowed father of her son-in-law, Joseph Grieco, who had married her daughter, Dolores. They also enjoyed a happy marriage, traveling frequently, until he died in 1984.
Grieco remained in Lynbrook at the Nathan Hale Senior Village. She continued to drive a car into her 90s and later walked around Lynbrook. She enjoyed playing poker and bridge and was remembered for dancing at family weddings and playing her harmonica. Following the fire at Nathan Hale in 1999, she moved to Oyster Bay.
Grieco enjoyed the music of Perry Como and Tony Bennett, and, until very recently, attended all of the school districts’ class musicals. “I talk to everyone, and tell them about that schoolhouse,” she said in the Herald interview. “as far as Lynbrook goes, it hasn’t changed much over the years. “The stores are built up a little bit more, but it’s still a nice village to walk through and meet people during the day.”
Grieco leaves three daughters: Dolores Grieco of Oyster Bay, Janet Ambrose of Maryland, and Ronnie Fluken of California. Another daughter; Vivian Neuweiler, died earlier. She also leaves 12 grandchildren, and a score of great-grandchildren.
Calling hours were at the Perry Funeral Home in Lynbrook, and a funeral Mass was held on May 14 at St. Raymond’s in East Rockaway. Burial was at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.
Comments about this story? Mmalloy@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 202.
