Lois DeMita, active member of Glen Cove Senior Center, dies at 91

As a child, Lois DeMita was often found shoeless, playing under the fig trees that surrounded her family's Alabama farmhouse. Enduring the Great Depression made DeMita immensely grateful for the rest of her life, her family said. That trait would be her hallmark characteristic to everyone who knew her.

"She was so happy with her life and so gracious for the wonderful life she was able to live," said Christine Rice, the director of the Glen Cove Senior Center, where DeMita and her husband, Frank, were members. "She would hope that she was able to give as much joy to people who gave to her."

The Glen Cove resident died of natural causes on Sept. 6, at the age of 91.

Lois DeMita was born on March 22, 1934, in Geneva, Alabama. She graduated from Geneva High School in 1952 and attended Massey Business College, where she trained as a bookkeeper. She left home in 1954 to attend the now-defunct Eastern Airlines training school, where she became a flight attendant. In 1955, DeMita moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1956 a transfer to New York brought DeMita the love of her life, her husband, Frank. The couple married on July 6, 1957.

"I first met Lois when she was living with two other flight attendants in Jackson Heights. I saw a young lady in the kitchen, and she got my attention right away. It was love at first sight," said Frank, who was taken by his wife's natural beauty and sense of humor.

The DeMitas settled in Valley Stream, where Frank was a mathematics teacher, and raised their two sons, Michael and Frank Jr. They moved to Glen Cove in 2007. According to her husband, even though DeMita was from Alabama, she was a New Yorker at heart.

"She loved the excitement of the city and the history of Long Island, and that there was so much to do, but the people she met is why she really loved Long Island," he said.

Soon after her wedding, DeMita left her job at the airlines to become a switchboard operator for Bell Telephone in Queens. Once her children were in school, she worked as an administrative assistant at Valley Stream Memorial Junior High School and served as president of the Wheeler Avenue Elementary School PTA.

Isabel Gray, DeMita's former neighbor in Valley Stream, remembers her as "a very friendly and lovely person to know."

"We were next-door neighbors for 16 years and chatted every day," said Gray, of Pacific Grove, California. "We lived near Fireman's Field, and anytime there was an event, we walked over together. Our birthdays were a day apart, so we always talked then, after she moved. I miss her."

Frank DeMita Jr. remembers watching Julia Child with his mother, and saw her love of cooking grow.

"Mom was an ambitious cook and managed to master everything from a classic Italian American 'Sunday sauce' of meatballs and sausage and veal cutlets Milanese to fried chicken and meatloaf," DeMita Jr. said. "She made the best darn pecan pie I have ever tasted, made with pecans from the trees in her mother's front yard in Alabama that would be shipped to us every year at Christmas."

"She was an awesome mom and grandmother," said DeMita's son, Michael DeMita. "I remember going shopping with her to Green Acres Mall, and she always made the best sandwiches."

Rice met the DeMitas when they joined the senior center a few years ago.

"She and Frank had the most beautiful relationship that I've ever seen. She was so proud to be his wife, and they loved to do things together," said Rice, of Garden City.

According to Rice, DeMita came to the center almost every day and "loved connecting with the other seniors and staff members."

"Her greatest quality was making other people feel good. She always had a smile and a compliment for everybody," Rice said.

DeMita enjoyed cooking, going to the theater, doing crossword puzzles, and was a voracious reader, fond of detective thrillers and murder mysteries. She also loved to travel, had a particular fondness for Britain and loved watching "Masterpiece Theatre."

In addition to her husband and two sons, DeMita is survived by two grandchildren. She was interred at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale.