Florence E. Baldessarini

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Florence Esther Baldessarini, "Tootsie,” passed peacefully on Monday, May 16, 2016, at the Wesley Health Care Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

She was born in North Adams on April Fool's Day 1923 to Patrick and Angelina (Rogge) Laino. She attended local schools and graduated from Drury High School with the class of 1940. She attended North Adams State College and Bliss Business School. 

In February, 1947 she married her grammar school sweetheart and love of her life, Agostino "Gusti" Baldessarini, who predeceased her to heaven in 2002.

Tootsie worked both at the former Gale and Wall Streeter Shoe Companies as a piece worker and later as the floor supervisor. After the closing of Walls, she worked as a sales associate at England Brothers, where she kept her grandchildren smartly dressed.

Tootsie relished cooking and cleaning. Even in her last years, she abhorred an unmade bed or fleck of dust on the floor. But most of all, Tootsie enjoyed her family and friends. The home she maintained with Gus was warm, open and welcoming to everyone. 

In later years they enjoyed spending winters in Florida. They made daily visits to the Red Sox Spring Training Camp. There they enjoyed interactions with the players and fans alike. Tootsie was quite an autograph hound. She even managed to get the unapproachable Ted Williams to sign not only one, but two baseballs for her grandson, Keith. 

Besides her husband and parents, she was predeceased in death by her sister Dorothy in 2015.

Survivors include her sister, Elizabeth Brennan of Waltham, Mass.; a son, Craig Baldessarini of North Adams; a daughter, Lynn Horrigan and her husband Nick of Burnt Hills, N.Y.; her grandchildren, Keith Horrigan and his partner, Goliath Carpenter of Lake Forest, Calif., and Shannon Ackerman and her husband Shawn of Bristol, R.I.; two great-grandchildren, Porter and Trinity Ackerman; and many cherished nieces and nephews.

Funeral notice: A Liturgy of Christian Burial for Florence Baldessarini will be celebrated Saturday, May 21, 2016, at 11 a.m. at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church. Burial will follow in Southview Cemetery.

Calling hours are Saturday morning from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, Central Chapel, 74 Marshall St., North Adams. Memorial donations may be made to the donor’s choice.