Josephine Bonomo, 104, who covered presidential inaugurations and royal visits during a long newspaper career, died September 19th, 2025 at her home in Upper Montclair, N.J.
A memorial mass will be celebrated on October 6th at 11am at St Cassian's church in Upper Montclair.

A graduate of Wellesley College, Miss Bonomo got her first newspaper job as a copy girl on the old New York Herald Tribune in 1943 when women started replacing men called to service during World War II. The following year she became a reporter on the Newark Evening News and remained with that paper until it ended publication in 1972. Early assignments included operating the paper's annual Christmas Fund appeal.

Later, she covered the return of the troopships at the end of the war. In glamour assignments, she spent a week in Monaco in 1956 covering the wedding of American movie star Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier. The following year, she traveled to Washington to cover the first state visit of the young Queen Elizabeth to the United States. For a week, in a large group of both British and American reporters, she followed the royal party in ceremonial visits to Washington institutions and even to a football game. At a press reception, she shook hands with the smiling monarch.

During the '50's and '60's, she was one of a team of reporters assigned to some of the top stories of the day. She helped to cover the inaugurations of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy; she pushed through the crowds in Wall Street for the triumphal parade of the first U.S. astronauts. When Soviet Premier Khrushchev, in a visit to the United States in 1959, went to Hyde Park to lay a wreath on President Franklin Roosevelt's grave, she covered the ceremony and later spoke with Mrs. Roosevelt.

A devoted opera fan, Miss Bonomo attended performances of the Metropolitan Opera in New York regularly for more than 70 years. She was in the audience the night in 1960 when the great baritone Leonard Warren collapsed and died on stage. Her front-page story appeared in the paper the next day.

After the Newark News suspended publication, she became a feature writer for the Herald News in Passaic, N.J., and contributed numerous freelance articles to the New York Times. She retired in 1985.

Born in Brooklyn, Miss Bonomo lived most of her life in Glen Ridge and Montclair and had been a volunteer for the Montclair Food Pantry. She traveled to Europe many times and twice drove across the United States on coast-to-coast auto trips.

Miss Bonomo was the daughter of the late Richard and Mary Bonomo and sister of the late Angela Laraja and Gerard Bonomo.

She leaves her adopted son, John Urga. Her other adopted son, Frank Urga, died in 1974. She leaves also three nephews, Joseph Laraja and his wife, Kathy; Richard Laraja and his wife, JoAnne; Richard Bonomo and his wife, Holly; a niece, Laura Colton and her husband, Richard, and five grand-nephews: Joseph Laraja III, Joseph Charles Laraja, James and Andrew Bonomo, and Michael Colton, and three grand-nieces, Nicole and Traci Laraja, and Dr. Kristin Laraja, and four great grands.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042, or to the Human Needs Food Pantry
9 Label Street
Montclair, NJ 07042