Anna M. Balestrieri, a lifelong Woburn resident passed away at the Wilmington Health Care Center, on Monday December 20, at the age of 91. She was the daughter of the late Mary (Lutrorio) and Alexander Balestrieri.
Anna graduated Woburn High School in 1932, and Burroughs Business Machines in 1935.
After graduating High School in 1932 at the height of the depression, when no jobs were available, Anna took care of a twelve year old boy from eight to five then took a bus to Woburn Square and worked at the “Candy Palace” from six to nine. She later got a job at New York Mattress Co. in Boston as a stitcher. During the war 1943-1946 she worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard as a coppersmith and earned a 3rd class mechanic´s rating, the first women to receive that rating as a coppersmith. After work she would volunteer many hours as uniformed Civil Defense worker, when the war ended she went to work for Mass Blue Cross - Blue Shield accounting and payroll department and after thirty years of service she retired in 1976.
Her chief intrest after her retirement was sewing wedding gowns, christening outfits and prom gowns for her family and extended family. After her eyesight began to fail she had to give up sewing. She was a lifelong member of St. Anthony Parish and the Woburn Sons of Italy.
Anna is survived by her four brothers, Joseph and his wife Louise, Richard and his wife Barbara of Wilmington. Ernest and his wife Doris, Albert and his wife Marie of Woburn. Two sisters, Eleanor L. Britt of No. Chelmsford and Eva M. Flynn of Woburn. Also many loving nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, great great nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her brothers Salvatore, Louis and George C. Balestrieri, her brother in law, Howard J. Britt Sr. and two sister in laws Lillian and Kella Balestrieri.
Her funeral will be held from the McLaughlin - Dello Russo Funeral Home, 60 Pleasant St. Woburn, on Thursday, December 23 at 9 a.m., followed by a funeral mass celebrated in St. Anthony Church, 851 Main St. Woburn, at 10. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Services will conclude with burial at Calvary Cemetery, Woburn.
Visiting hours are at the funeral home on Wednesday, December 22, from 3 thru 8
In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial donations may be sent to Woburn High School Scholarship Fund, Box 22, Woburn, MA 01801 or to
St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105