Grace Josephine Iacobuzio (née Nitti), affectionately known by those who adored her as Mommy, Gram, Zizi, Nonna and Mama Grace, passed away peacefully and surrounded by love on July 2, 2025, in West Orange, New Jersey. She was 95 years old.

Grace was born on May 7, 1930, the second of four children, in a lower east side tenement apartment on the hottest May 7th on record to that date. At the age of 18 months, she went to live with her paternal aunt and uncle, Donato and Anna Maria DeBonis on East 7th Street in Brooklyn where she was raised with enormous gratitude and love until her marriage at the age of 18 to Dominic Carl Iacobuzio, her partner in life, love and family for 66 years. They raised three children in Brooklyn and Rye Brook, NY: daughters Anne Reichel and Janet Iacobuzio (Ilene), and son Ted (Anne). Grace was the very definition of devoted wife and mother and in her later years, was a caretaker to the people who raised her as well as her grandchildren, spanning the decades of her long, healthy, beautiful life.

She loved and helped care for 3 grandchildren—Mark Reichel (Annette), Cecilia Iacobuzio, and Nicholas Iacobuzio and was a devoted and steadfast source of love, care, food and humor. She deeply embraced her role as great-grandmother to Madeline Grace Reichel and Aidan Dominic Reichel with the same warmth and affection that defined every chapter of her life and felt deeply blessed to live so close to them in New Jersey.

Grace's interests were as rich and varied as the life she led. She had an abiding love for music—especially opera—and could often be found reading or engaging deeply with current events. She read the New York Times every morning, "cover to cover" until she couldn't and she was a prolific reader of fiction and historical biography. She was deeply proud of her Italian ancestry and her American heritage and lamented seeing people or animals in distress or poverty. She was politically engaged, never missed an election and took pride in recounting that the only Republican she ever voted for was Dwight Eisenhower.

Her kitchen was a place of comfort where she expressed love through cooking, creating meals that became family traditions that her children and grandchildren try to recreate to this day. Animals held a special place in her heart, especially dogs and horses, reflecting the compassion and inclusion that guided so much of how she moved through the world. After her youngest daughter was old enough to get her own snack after school, Grace took her first job as a bookkeeper and payroll manager for the whole of Gannett Westchester Newspapers, often bringing work home for the weekends and spreading it all across the dining room table.

A woman of deep but private faith, Grace worshiped at several parishes throughout her life: Our Lady of Grace in Brooklyn, NY; Corpus Christi in Port Chester, NY; St. Bernard in Sharon, CT; and St. Cassian's in Montclair, NJ. Her spiritual life was quiet yet profound—a steady foundation beneath all she did.

Grace Josephine Iacobuzio leaves behind a legacy rooted in love, strength, and enduring grace. May her memory bring comfort to those who knew her and continue to inspire all whose lives she touched - including the virtual world where she was well known to many who are also going to miss her bright light.

Calling hours will be held on July 9, 2025, from 04:00 PM to 08:00 PM at Caggiano Memorial Home For Funerals, 62 Grove Street, Montclair, NJ. A Funeral Mass will be held on July 10, 2025, from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM at St. Cassian's R.C. Church, 187 Bellevue Avenue, Upper Montclair, NJ. Interment will be at a later date in Rye Brook, NY, at St. Mary's Cemetery, beside her beloved Dom.