Lillian Kopec, formerly Lillian Giraffa, died on June 18, 2012 at the Hoosick Falls Health Center, just shy of her eightieth birthday. Lillian Kopec was born on July 14, 1932 in Manhattan before moving at a young age to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, just south of the bridge. There, she met her future husband, Bernard (Ben) Kopec, whose family lived in the same neighborhood. They were married on October 15, 1950 in Our Lady of Consolation Church at 184 Metropolitan Ave. in Brooklynthe alter where Ben's own grandfather had married in 1911. Lillian raised her children, born in 1951, 1954, and 1958 while living in Flatbush and Southampton, New York. She traveled widely with her husband who worked for Stern & Stern Textiles in Manhattan. Her brother, Nicholas Giraffa, became president of Teamsters Local 732 in Manhattan and successfully led the union's efforts to organize the workers of Pan American Airlines. For the past twenty years she lived in Cambridge in a house she built just up the hill from Chris and Alan and the grandchildren and near to Corinne and Ross in Vermont. Her mother and Cliff and Jane soon followed her to town and she became embedded in the daily lives of her children and grandchildren and was well-known by all their friends.
Lillian possessed a quick mind for puzzles and word play, a passion for cooking (a talent inherited by her children), and was an avid reader for much of her life. As a young girl, she displayed courage to peers whom others feared. We remember her for her sense of humor and ability to easily recall old movies and obscure bits of poetry, but most for her compassion and understandingtraits that few possess in any significant quantity but that she selflessly extended to those who needed them.
She is predeceased by her brother Nicholas Charles Giraffa (January 5, 1928December 7, 1983), her mother Lillian Weidler (formerly Olga Spiel, October 4,1909 July 4, 2003), her father Pat Giraffa (formerly Pasquale, who died August 27, 1976), her husband Bernard Kopec (February 6, 1931-December 16, 1979)), and her dogs, Chico, Hombre, Delta, and Dancer. She is survived by her eldest daughter Christine C. Kopec and her husband D. Alan Wrigley, Jr. of Cambridge, NY, her son Clifford Kopec and his life partner, Jane Ross, also of Cambridge, her youngest daughter, Corinne Kopec and her husband, Ross Almo, of Mendon, VT, her grandsons Joshua Kopec Wrigley and Nicholas Clarke and his wife Cara (Burdett, NY), her granddaughter Sarah Yoon Kopec Wrigley and her great grand-children Dylan, Mary, Alice, Harrison and Madeline Clarke.
For those who wish to remember Lil, the family requests that donations be made to the World Wildlife Fund at worldwildlife.org/donate or 800-960-0993 in remembrance of Mom's great love of animals.