Dorothy Tinelli Cestagalli, 93, of the Bowen’s Mill Community, died Thursday, April 17, 2008, at her residence.
Funeral services will be held 10 AM, Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at the Paulk Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Jimmy Fant and Rev. Claude Mack officiating. Interment will be held 3 PM, Wednesday, April 23 at Alaqua United Methodist Church Cemetery in Defuniak Springs, FL, with Rev. Henry Martin officiating. The family will receive friends from 7-9 Monday evening at the funeral home.
Ms. Cestagalli was born October 16, 1914 in New York, New York to the late Enrico and Anna Clini Tinelli. Ms. Cestagalli was a seamstress and worked in the fashion industry making dress samples for fashion designers. She had lived in the Bowen’s Mill Community since 1986 and was a former resident of New York and North Miami, Florida. A member of the Bowen’s Mill Christian Center, she served as a missionary to Columbia, South America, and Alaska. While in Alaska, she also served as a midwife. Ms. Cestagalli was a loving mother, a good cook, and a devoted friend, grandmother, and great-grandmother.
She is survived by her two daughters and sons-in-law: Dorothy C. & Raymond Earley of North Fort Myers, Florida and Carol Ann & Norman Buchert of Merritt Island, Florida; five grandchildren: Peter James Earley, Genelle M. Buchert, Charisse A. Buchert, Felicia J. Buchert, and April R. Buchert; twin great-grandchildren: Marissa & Wyatt Earley; one sister: Gloria Cappiello of Ephrata, Pennsylvania as well as several precious nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her son: Charles Cestagalli.