Yolanda D. DiOrio (nee DiGiovanni)
Yolanda D. DiOrio (nee DiGiovanni), passed away quietly in her sleep at her Highgate at Paoli Pointe home in Paoli, Pa., on Oct. 23. She was 95, and though in recent years her general decline in health was severe, this is a lady who still cut a mean rug at “senior dances” as an octogenarian.
A good way to describe Yola DiOrio’s role as mother in her tight-knit family would be to say it gave her greater happiness each year to see her three sons parade their new Easter outfits than to worry too much about her own new threads. Not that she wasn’t a stylish and effervescent wife to her now long-deceased husband, Carl. But she lived to dote on her kids and in more recent years, grandkids.
Born in Philadelphia, Yolanda was raised by immigrant parents during the height of the Great Depression, yet she often noted, “We were poor, I guess, but we didn’t know it because we never went wanting for food or anything important.”
She spent the early part of her marriage in the young couple’s southwest Philadelphia rowhome before moving to brand spanking new Levittown, Pa., upon the birth of their second son. Less than a decade later, her husband’s promotion to agency manager at State Farm prompted a move by the then-family of five to Morton in Delaware County. And after her husband died in 1979, she moved to a condo in Pritchard Place in Edgmont Township.
Yolanda – always Yola to friends and “Yogi” to her besotted husband -- was the devoted daughter of the late Antonio and Lucia (nee D’Ancona) DiGiovanni.
Yolanda was employed for many years in her son Stephen’s insurance office and previously worked for a few years at the onetime Lit Bros. department store in Broomall. In addition to dancing, she enjoyed bowling, roller skating and biking. She delighted in spending time at the seashore with family and friends in Stone Harbor, N.J.
Yolanda and Carlo DiOrio’s three sons include Robert M. DiOrio, Esq.; Carl J. DiOrio; and Stephen J. DiOrio. Her surviving devoted daughters-in-law include Susan DiOrio and Bianka DiOrio.
Yolanda was the devoted “Nona,” or grandmother, to Danielle, Carla, Stephen, Christina, Stephanie and Nicholas, as well as six great grandchildren. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews and was predeceased by her nine siblings.
Relatives and friends are invited to a viewing at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 26 and also 8:45 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Oct. 27, both at Donohue Funeral Home, 3300 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, Pa. A funeral Mass will take place at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 2400 N. Providence Road, Media. Interment in SS Peter & Paul Cemetery, Springfield, will follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to Chester County Special Olympics, 458 King Road, Malvern, PA 19355.