Antonia Manente

Antonia Manente, age 82 of Wayne, died on Sunday, October 20, 2024. She has lived in Wayne since 1989. Antonia retired in 2007 from the Union City schools where she had been a teacher’s aid for seventeen years. 

Antonia was born and raised in Gravina, Italy, near Bari. She was one of ten children in her family: eight girls and two boys. Her family was very religious and deeply involved in their Catholic church. As a teenager, she was considering the idea of becoming a nun but that all changed one day when she met Antonio Manente. Antonio was a patient at the hospital where she had been working, and they quickly fell for each other. They were married on September 4, 1960, but there was no time for a honeymoon. Her husband moved to America, and they waited two years before they could be together again. Antonia had never ventured very far from her hometown when, at just twenty years old, she boarded a plane and flew to New Jersey where she settled in Hoboken with her new husband. They lived there, and then in Union City for several years, before buying a home in Wayne in 1989. They enjoyed a loving and loyal marriage of more than sixty years before Antonio passes away in 2020, and she has missed him ever since.

Antonia was certainly the matriarch of the Manente family. She was a strong and hard-working woman who always stressed the importance of loving one another. Her children recall how devoted she was to her Catholic faith throughout all the years of her life. She joined many prayer groups and bible studies, read her bible often, and attended mass regularly. Psalm 23 was among those she read most often. She was also a devoted grandmother to her nine grandchildren, and she was blessed with three great-grandchildren. Each of them filled her with love and joy. Her cup runneth over.

Antonia is survived by her four children; Vito Manente of Union City, NJ, Filomena Manente of Jupiter, FL, Nancy Antolini (Justin) of Wyomissing, PA, and Tony “Reno” Manente (Brianna) of Franklin Lakes, NJ, nine grandchildren; Christina, Vito, Anthony, Victoria, Jacob, Roger, Antonia, Antonio James, and Reno, and three great-grandchildren; CJ, Juliana, and Eleanora. She is also survived by six of her siblings: Graciella, Franca, Josephine, Tina, Rose, and Vito. She was predeceased by her husband, Antonio, in 2020, and by three of her siblings; Francesco, Elvira, and Maria.