Leonora "Lee" Sarno

On January 24th four generations of the Sarno family lost a much loved Aunt Lee.

Leonora (Lee) Sarno was born in Roxbury, one of 12 surviving children of Frank and Angelina Sarno. She attended Roxbury Memorial High School and Burdett Business College. During WWII she worked in Washington,  D.C. for the war effort and then in California for the telephone company. She returned to Roxbury and in the 1950’s moved to Watertown where she with two sisters and a brother established the Sarno family home on Mount Auburn Street. For decades that was where Sarno family celebrations occurred. All gatherings there provided much love and much hospitality. Acceptance of both was required for attendance. She operated a beauty shop in Cambridge and for 27 years managed the Credit Union at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company when its offices were in Boston.

She is survived by one lifelong and loving sister, Clara, having recently moved with her to a new home at Waterstone at the Circle in Cleveland Circle, Boston. She was predeceased by all her siblings, save Clara. These included,  Alfred (Rose Anne), Richard, Daniel (Susan), Edward (Celeste), William (Jennie), Beatrice (Dino) Dini, Adeline, Gerard (Helen), Henry (Frances) and Virginia (Frank) Saia. She is deeply missed by a myriad of nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews and great grand nieces and nephews.  

Lee was a fiercely loyal friend, club member and volunteer. She supported the Cooley’s Anemia Foundation, political campaigns and Sons of Italy, where she was a member of Cornelia dei Gracchi at Lodge #1583.  For over twenty years she was a volunteer at the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. She, with her sister Clara, were generous philanthropists supporting Boston Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Shriners, Saint Jude’s Hospital for Children, Mount Auburn Hospital and the Nativity Preparatory School in Boston.

Because of the present COVID crisis the family has decided to honor Lee with a funeral Mass and celebration at a later date when all of her huge family and many friends can congregate together to remember her.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Nativity Preparatory School, 39 Lamartine Street, Boston, MA 02130.

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