Yolanda Zagami

Concord – Mrs. Yolanda (Iacono) Zagami, of Concord, died Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She was 85.

Yolanda was born in Sydney, Australia on April 9, 1927, a daughter of the late Joseph and Angelina (LoSchiavo) Iacono, and moved to Italy as a child. She was raised in the Aeolian Islands, a coastal chain off the northern coast of Sicily. In 1943, at the height of World War II, she emigrated to the United States, settling in Waltham. She was a Waltham resident for most of her life before moving to Cape Coral, Florida in 1988 and to Concord six years ago.

In retirement she enjoyed traveling around the globe, including trips to Australia to visit with her sisters, to the Holy Land in Israel and to Greece and to Italy. She was also talented with knitting and crochet needles and spent the winter making blankets to donate to area veterans hospitals and organizations. She was also a longtime supporter of Rosie's Place and the Pine Street Inn in Boston.

Her husband, Stephen Zagami, died June 3, 2008.

She leaves her children, Catherine A. Umina and her husband, John, of Concord, Anthony J. Zagami and his wife, Donna, of West Newton, Angela Aucoin of Concord and Joseph M. Zagami and his wife, Donna, of York Beach, Maine; her sisters, Antoinette Barone of Bondi Beach, Australia, Josephine Pitari of Griffith, Australia, and Angelina Bonica of Bergen, New Jersey; 13 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

She and her husband were also the parents of an infant son who died at birth and she was a sister-in-law of the late Susie and Stephen Giardina, Angelina and Gaetano Taranto, Mary and Gaetano Barbuto and Josie and Joseph Paino.

Family and friends will honor and remember Yolanda's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Friday, May 25th, from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning before leaving in procession to Sacred Heart Church, 311 River Street, Waltham, where her Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Entombment will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 480 Pleasant Street, Watertown, MA 02472.