Maureen B. Villari of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania passed away on June 16, 2025. Born on August 24, 1947 in Rockville Centre, New York, Maureen was raised in Mineola and Long Beach on Long Island and North Miami Beach, Florida.

Maureen graduated from North Miami Senior High School in 1965 and will be sorely missed by her lifelong best friends, Debbie Durst and Fran Constantino. She attended Virginia Wesleyan College as a first-generation college student, graduating with a B.A. in Art History. Maureen then dedicated more than thirty years of her life to public service as a civil servant with the U.S. Department of Defense, eventually retiring from the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center in Portsmouth, Virginia.

 

Maureen loved traveling; her involvement in the Red Hat Society; and her pet Yorkies Cody, Remmy, and Daisy. Most of all, she loved spending time with her family, to whom she was devoted. She is survived by her daughter, Sheilah Villari of Jersey City, NJ; her sister Patricia A. Angelo of Virginia Beach, Virginia; her brother and sister-in-law Kevin and Karen Richards of Fairfield, Pennsylvania; her niece Anne-Marie Angelo of Hove, England; her great nephew Giovanni Patrick Angelo of Chesapeake, Virginia (Nicole Clingenpeel); and her cousins Deanne Koehler, Lorraine (Koehler) Frangesh, and Karen (Koehler) Giannetto of North Carolina.

 

Maureen was predeceased by her grandparents Mary Deakin Nash and Thomas J. Nash, her mother and stepfather Ruth Nash Richards and Harold Richards, her aunt and uncle Jeanne Nash Lucki and John Lucki, and her nephew and godson Shawn Patrick Angelo. 

 

Deeply proud of her roots, Maureen was a fifth-generation Irish-American New Yorker and a great-granddaughter of New York City tugboat Captain Robert H. Deakin of the Moran Towing Company. She enjoyed working in her parents’ nautical store, The Ship’s Chandlery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She kept her family’s history strong, preserving family photos and passing down stories to the next generation.

 

Maureen and her siblings Patty and Kevin formed an a capella singing group as children in the 1950s. Guided by their parents, the trio performed at senior living communities in Miami’s South Beach. Over the years, the siblings fondly recalled these performances as some of their most cherished memories.

 

Maureen will be remembered for her wit, generosity, thoughtfulness, creativity, sense of style, and care for others. In timeless fashion, she warmed her family’s hearts throughout the year, never missing a chance to send a greeting card or care package for every birthday and holiday. She opened her home on numerous occasions to Patty, Anne-Marie, and Shawn. Thanks to this closeness, their children grew up more as siblings than cousins, a gift for which they remain forever grateful.

 

A lifelong Catholic, Maureen will receive a funeral mass and inurnment on August 22, 2025 at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Virginia Beach, a city that she loved and called home for over four decades of her life. 

 

Along with her daughter, Maureen was a proud member of the League of Women Voters. Donations in her memory may be sent to: LWVUS, P.O. Box 96837, Washington, DC 20090.

 

Maureen spent the last couple years of her life at Magnolias of Chambersburg, PA. She once said that returning to Magnolias after being away felt like going home, which brought her and us great peace. Our family thanks the Magnolias staff and the Grane Hospice for their unceasing care for her and the comfort they have given our family.

May the road rise to meet you. 

May the wind be always at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields. 

And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand. 

 

We love you and miss you so much, Mo.