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Patricia “Pat” Colonna operated a seamstress business for decades from her Jeannette home more for the people it brought to her door than for the money, her daughters said.
“She would charge them $2 to hem a pair of pants, but she probably fed them $5 worth of food,” Tamara Yorio said. Some customers would even call to find out what was for dinner.
“She liked having something she could do at home and having a revolving door of people,” her daughter said.
Their father, a contractor, frequently grumbled about coming home to find Mrs. Colonna's customers at their dinner table eating up her profits, Machaela Pietrusza said.
“She fed anyone. She was known for her pizzelles,” she said.
Mrs. Colonna didn't like Italian cookies, but she made them by the dozens to give away.
Patricia Ann Colonna, 82, of Jeannette died Friday, Feb. 10, 2017.
She was born in 1934 in Greensburg, a daughter of John and Frances Hleviak Dziedzickie. Her mother died when she was about 4, and her father died when she was 16. Growing up in Bovard, Mrs. Colonna quit school in ninth grade and went to work at a Greensburg tailor's shop.
She met her future husband, the late Edward Colonna, at a dance in Hanna's Town and lied about her age, Pietrusza said.
“He thought she was 21, but she kept getting younger,” she said. She finally confessed that she was 18.
After they married, she worked at the former Sportsman's Bar, which was owned by her brother-in-law. Later, she decided to concentrate on her seamstress business.
She got to know everyone in town, her daughters said.
“If she saw a little kid (she didn't know), she would always ask them what their name was, how old they were and give them a dollar,” Pietrusza said.
Mrs. Colonna loved to travel, Yorio said. She visited every state except North Dakota and Alaska, took a train trip across Canada and toured European countries.
“My dad took her everywhere,” she said.
Her husband, owner of Colonna Construction Co., was a friend of a Steelers coach, so they went to the Steelers first four Super Bowl appearances and a few other Super Bowls, Yorio said.
Mrs. Colonna belonged to bowling and bocce leagues and was a founding member of a card club she played in for 60 years.
For her funeral, the family will put up a card table, tuck a deck of cards in the casket and fill up candy bowls for visitors. Mrs. Colonna loved washing and ironing clothes.
“If we could, we would take her laundry machine down (to the funeral home) and have it running beside her casket,” Yorio said.
Mrs. Colonna is survived by her children, Machaela Pietrusza of Irwin and her husband, Richard; John Colonna of Jeannette and his wife, Barbara; Tamara Yorio of Marietta, Ga., and her husband, Jeff; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A blessing service will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday at John V. Graziano Funeral Home, 228 N. Second St., Jeannette. Interment will follow in Westmoreland County Memorial Park in Hempfield.
Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1218 or bbowling@tribweb.com.
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