Longtime Mineola resident Justine Urianek died on April 30 after a long illness. She was 79.
She and her husband, Mineola civic activist Bill Urianek, had been married for 60 years.
Bill Urianek said he had asked Justine to marry him on their second date.
“We knew each other for six hours. We were married for 60 years,” Urianek said.
Urianek said he was a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton in California when Justine traveled from the East Coast to marry him.
The two met when their cousins got married while Urianek was living in Astoria and she lived in Manhattan.
She was modeling women’s clothing at the time, but after their marriage, she became a housewife and raised their two daughters during more than 50 years of living in Mineola.
“She just enjoyed everybody and enjoyed doing stuff for us,” her daughter, Susan Zandini said.
She also enjoyed doing things with her daughters and Zandini recalled how her mother taught her and her sister, Donna Sonnenberg, homemaking skills.
“She taught us to bake. She taught us to crochet,” Zandini said.
She also remembered her mother sewing her sister’s twirling outfits, and her mother’s good sense of humor.
“She was quiet. She never liked to be the center of attention. Anybody that knew her really liked her,” Zandini said.
She also recalled her mother at ball games, always taking an interest in whatever her four grandchildren were doing.
“Her grandchildren were her life. Growing up, so were we,” Zandini said.
She said that after her mother suffered a stroke seven years ago, she never was the same.
“We lost her seven years ago. That was the hardest part,” Zandini said.
In addition to her husband, Bill, and her two daughters, Justine is survived by her son, William, and four grandchildren, Bryan, Stacey, Frank and Erica.
A funeral service was held in her memory at the Cassidy Funeral Home last week on Thursday night.
