Victim of Morristown fire to be laid to rest today, Dec. 19

Teresa Sgaramella. Photo courtesy of Callaway and Crane Funeral Home Inc., December 2014
Teresa Sgaramella. Photo courtesy of Callaway and Crane Funeral Home Inc., December 2014
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A Morristown tailor who embodied the American Dream will be laid to rest today, Dec. 19, 2014.

Teresa Sgaramella, 84, perished on Sunday in a fire at her home on Shady Lane.

A funeral service is scheduled for 11 am at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bernardsville, with burial to follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Basking Ridge.

The former Teresa Cantatore was born in Ruovo di Puglia, Italy, and came to New York in 1954 with her late husband, Emanuele, known to friends as Manny. They traveled here on the Andrea Doria.

The couple settled in Morristown in 1978, and owned and ran the A & L Men’s Shop until they retired in 1989.

Teresa Sgaramella is remembered by family and friends as a tailor, avid gardener, traveler and a gifted cook, who taught her children and grandchildren Italian cooking traditions.

The day before she died, a neighbor visited to borrow her recipe for Italian almond cookies.

A granddaughter, Lauren, posted warm remembrances online of “summers at your house. playing in the house, going to baskin robbins, and making cookies and baked ziti. I love you more than anyone in the world.”

Teresa Sgaramella is survived by her brothers Joe and Nick Cantatore and sister Tina Petrone; by many sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law; nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and cousins. She was predeceased by her brother Michael Cantatore. Her family also remembered her friends, Paul and Gail and Aide Joanna.

In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested that memorial donations be made to to St. Jude or the Make a Wish Foundation.

The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office has not yet released details of its investigation of the fire, which Morristown firefighters believed started in a rear recreation/ TV room of the split level home.

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