Libby Maggio

Libby Maggio was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 28, 1923. She left us, headed to Heaven, from her apartment in Rohnert Park just after 11 pm on Thursday, November 4, 2021.

Libby is survived by her sister Mary, Libby’s daughters Jeanne and Valerie, her grandchildren Reneé, Dominic, and Eddie, and her great-grandchildren Lily and little Eddie, and Libby’s dear friends Lorraine, Trudy, Elaine, and Angelina.

Libby will be buried with her husband of 50 years in Calvary Cemetery across the Street here in Petaluma.

[Libby’s memorial service and burial are on Thursday November 18, 2021, starting at 12:30 pm at Parent Sorensen funeral home, 850 Keokuk Street, Petaluma CA 94952. Presiding clergy is friend of the family, Ed Howell.]

A little bit about Libby:

Libby went to “needle trade” school and, starting with her cousin getting her a job sewing sleeves into dresses for pennies a piece, learned to be a master seamstress. For several years she helped teach a beginning sewing class at the JC in Santa Rosa, and up until not long ago, Libby was still doing minor alterations on her neighbors’ clothes.

Libby always sewed all her own clothes and that of her three daughters when they were kids and teens. Libby also had made all the curtains and drapes for the house and used to make canvas cushion covers and deck covers complete with latches to attach to the cabin of hubby Tony’s boat years ago.

Libby loved to dance with Tony and then Ted. Back in her Fantasy 5 group, they would put on tap dancing shows for different venues in Sonoma County, with Libby making costumes on her sewing machine for the group.

Libby loved pool, and was watching champion billiard VHS tapes the day before she left us. Libby received several pool trophies, most of which she donated to the Rohnert Park senior center. She also won a pool cue.

Libby loved watching tapes of ‘40s-‘50s movies and also more modern romances with Barbra Streisand like The Way We Were, and her favorite was Moonstruck with Cher. She also watched The Godfather, which she said was like watching home movies, and she enjoyed her set of Frank Sinatra shows (courtesy of Dominic, who often showed up to set Libby straight to get her tape player to work).

Libby was a true artist and did China painting years ago with lots of beautiful plates and cups still around, as well as a nativity scene she gave Valerie for a wedding gift, with each figure carefully hand-painted by Libby.

Libby did much volunteer service over the past 30 years or so. At the Rohnert Park senior center she served coffee and donuts for more than 20 years every Friday afternoon. Libby also used to volunteer at the Spreckels Center in Rohnert Park and got to see many shows free, which she loved. Once she let Valerie and Eddie in, when Eddie was small, to see Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green-Jeans. Yes, the originals--they were still alive!

Libby loved to crochet and knit, and made many lap blankets and scarves for battered women and children in shelters, and the homeless. She even crocheted phone cases for cell phones, and knitted dresses for some of her granddaughter Lily’s dolls that live in Valerie’s curio cabinet which Tony Maggio had built many years ago, with Eddie at 8 years old helping.

And speaking of Tony, who fought in World War II, he was the love of Libby’s life and she’d often tell the story of how, from the first time she saw him, “That was it!”-- she was in love. Libby was very patriotic until her last breath and all knew that hers was the balcony with the giant flag.

Libby was a Christian but didn't go to church, saying she never had felt right in church. Years ago, when Valerie had stayed away too long, Libby said she had read from the Psalms every night and then Valerie came back. Libby and Valerie would talk about the Bible often, and Libby would sometimes cry and say, “Without God and the Bible there’d be nothing else left”.

Prayer:

Dear God, our Father in heaven, please bless everyone here who has come together to honor Libby Maggio who we loved so much. We trust that Libby is safely in your arms, dear God and our Lord Jesus Christ, that she has been given eternal life. And we pray that we here today will, if not already, come to love and trust Jesus Christ, so that we can one day join with Libby in heaven and eternal life.

Jesus said: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not die, but have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

--John 3:16,17

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