Early Father’s Day morning, Dorothy Joan Mahony Cantore completed her final journey on earth and flew with angel’s wings to join her beloved husband in Heaven.  The youngest child of Joseph & Thelma Mahony, Dorothy was born 11-10-30 on the island of Trinidad, [then] BWI --   to this day among the most multi-cultural places on the planet.  Immersed in the myriad of diverse racial, ethnic, religious, socio-economic, and linguistic cultures of family and friends, her earliest years were the foundation for the respect, compassion, benevolence and tolerance that she carried with her throughout her life.

     The apple of her father’s eye, and the family’s darling, by the age of 7 she had from her Castilian abuela learned to play castanets and dance some seriously Spanish steps.  From her Irish Da, she learned to value education and his Catholic faith as she attended St. Joseph’s Convent School for girls.  From her prim, proper and no less loving English Protestant Mum, she learned how to conduct herself with decorum and grace under any/all occasions joyous or otherwise. 

     By 1938, The Great Depression had hit the tiny island of Trinidad hard:  before her 8th birthday, Joseph Mahony lost what had been a highly profitable import/export business; Dorothy lost her beloved father, and his family of 4 became dependent upon the benevolence of relatives & friends.  Dorothy would then be raised (fortunately) in the loving home of Bianca & Louis Rostant (“Auntie Binky and Uncle Louis”) who along with the families of her lifelong friends, Pat McCarthy & Eric Peter Solis, raised her as their own daughter.  With their loving support, she became a multi-talented athlete (well before the advent of Title IX), a prima ballerina, (whose tap and tango were second to none) and a young woman of substance and sparkle much to the admiration of many single gentlemen (including those at the debutante ball she made side by side with Her Darling Pat).

     Her life took yet another hard left as 18 year old Dorothy battled a yearlong bout of rheumatic fever, and upon doctors’ advice left Trinidad to recover (at the Ft. Belvoir, VA home of “Mary” now Trini bride of U.S. Army Maj. Marty Tursi) in the more temperate climate of Washington D.C.   Within days after her arrival, Dorothy obtained employment to earn her keep at the D.C. firm of William H. Singleton.  No sooner had her first paycheck arrived when Mary decided to take full advantage of “Miss Dorothy’s” upbringing.  “Marty’s best war buddy just arrived from Korea, and now as the new commander of Ft. Belvoir’s ‘all negro company’ (as per the absolute segregation of the US Army in 1952) he needs a date “with a nice girl” for the Brigade Commander’s Ball next week. Will you.  .  .”

      Well.  Dorothy did oblige.   A week later, a dashing young soldier (Little could his combat engineer’s 6 years have prepared 30 year old Tomasso Cantore  -- Italian kid born to illiterate immigrants and raised in a cold water flat – for the Trinidadian Tornado awaiting him)   arrived in full dress blues to find a 105 pound 21 year old wisp of a girl with a West Indian accent, jet black hair, and hazel eyes ready to dance the night away at her first American ball.   When Capt. Cantore (clueless that “Miss Dorothy Mahony” knew all about the dance card deal back in the day)  explained that he was “obligated to dance with his superiors’ wives throughout the evening,”  but assured her that he would be her partner for the first and last dances, she smiled, joined him on the floor as the ball began, and spent the rest of the evening in the arms of his fellow single officers.  “Your mother was and is always the belle of the ball,” he would say for the rest of their 50 years together. Two months later he proposed under the cherry blossoms of Our Nation’s Capital, and they married in a hospital room on 9-11-52:  Dorothy’s rheumatic fever had returned with a vengeance, and she spent the first two months of their marriage once again recovering. (She would years later note, “Your father made my fever spike.”).  But fortified with her bridegroom’s love, her recovery was quick, and she embraced with great gusto her role as the wife of a U.S. Army Company Commander:   upon joining her husband in their Ft Belvoir quarters, she soon learned to make a mean dish of spaghetti and meatballs.  (Previous to this role, thanks to the life so generously provided in Trinidad by “Auntie Binks” and “Uncle Louis,” she couldn’t boil water.)   One sweltering August evening, just before the arrival of their daughter, Jean Marie, the newlyweds hosted an Italian dinner at their (as was absolutely so in 1952) segregated military quarters for his “negro officers and NCO’s”, and Captain Cantore was called by the Ft. Belvoir security guard on duty to verify its legitimacy. After her husband made it clear in no uncertain terms that “protocol be damned!  These men are here as my soldiers and my guests,” Dorothy regaled eight young lieutenants with Trini tales sending them home with dishes of homemade marinara sauce, spaghetti & meatballs sufficient to feed an army.  Dorothy’s husband would soon thereafter be “informed” that their dinner represented “the first social racial intermingling of its kind on this post.”

     During her husband’s final decade in the military the couple was stationed in Market    Weighton, England, where at RAF Greenham Common he spent 60 hour work weeks building airport runways for the US Air Force, and military families’ quarters were not to be had.  And so they lived in a 500 year old  cottage -- sans central heating, television, and telephone. Throughout their 3 year stay  Dorothy --  now pregnant with their second child, Daniel Thomas  (born 2-2-55 while his father was “pouring concrete “God  know where” ) -- loved and nurtured their precocious walking talking 11 month old and kept each room’s fireplace well stocked with wood thru the England winters. Among her other military wife responsibilities.

      Aboard the the U.S. Queen Mary the family began the journey to their next assignment:   Ft. Leonardwood , Missouri.   During the 10 day voyage, Dorothy persevered thru 24/7 seasickness, the care of toddler Daniel (a smiling child with his father’s deep brown eyes)  and the all too often moments when 3 year old Jean Marie chose to stand on a deck chair singing “God Bless America!”  in perfect pitch at the top of her lungs.  Throughout their 3 years in Maryville, Missouri, while her husband upheld his civil engineer duties throughout Ft. Leonardwood, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas, the young family was blessed with the midwestern hospitality of their neighbors including that of Morton and Sara Babb who became Dorothy’s third set of parents.   With her children she spent many a Sunday enjoying Grandma Sara’s homemade mashed potatoes with gravy, fried chicken and corn on the cob.  Just before leaving  Missouri,  Tommy served as Denny Bissell’s best man at the wedding of Morton and Sara’s daughter, Darlene.   50 years later, Dorothy flew to Branson, Missouri and danced at the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Mr. & Mrs. Denny Bissell.

     They called their final tour of duty, “a Panama Paradise,” even as Major Cantore spent months at a time away from his family busy bushwacking through the jungles outside of Belize, Honduras and Quito, Ecuador to build bridges and roads.   Nevertheless, throughout her husband’s extended absences, Dorothy learned to drive, became an American citizen,  chaired numerous balls and bashes at the officers’ club, taught summer recreation dance lessons to (classes of 75)  “Ft. Kobbe Kids,” was a Brownie Scout troop leader, and never missed a single one of her children’s “Ft. Kobbe Wahoos” swim meets (“Never mind finishing fourth,” she told her daughter after a Junior Olympics effort. “You tried your best, and that’s what winning is truly about.”)  During her children’s wonder years, their birthdays were celebrations fit for royal offspring.   Almost singlehandedly Dorothy  planned parties, decorated and organized games, and prepared and served fine food on the dining room table replete with her best silver and china where 30-40 wonder years children (“No child should ever be left out of a birthday party.”) dressed in their party attire finery seated with their cloth napkins on their laps never failed to behave appropriately decorous --- as Jeanne and Danny’s Mom somehow always managed to inspire children to do.  The year she broke her leg and was in a cast for months was no exception.

     Major Cantore retired in 1963, to his “beautiful Mohawk Valley” in Utica, New York.  While Dorothy often was heard muttering, “I left my tropical paradise to live in the Siberia of the United States,” she soon became “a pillar of St. Mark’s Church” (Tommy’s words) as an active member of The Ladies Altar Rosary Society and teacher of weekly religious instructions for the parish children.  Once again, she became a Girl Scout leader for her daughter, and throughout both children’s years at General Herkimer Elementary School she was an active member of their PTA.  Her love for children never waned after Jeanne and Danny flew the family coop, Dorothy loved her time with the General Herkimer kids as a playground, lunch, and kindergarten aide for several decades.   It was not at all unusual for a former Herkimer Kid now a middle aged person to stop by her Homestead Drive house and get a few home baked cookies, along with an ear to listen, and a shoulder upon which to cry. Indeed, during her 47 years in North Utica, all whom she knew and loved --- from family to friends, to neighbors and community --- knew that as sure as day follows night, “Dottie” would “be there” with a birthday cake, a homemade meal, and a heart to carry and care during times of joy and sorrow.

     Her two children, Jean Cantore Green (David dec. 2002) and Daniel Thomas Cantore (Jean Ann Bowman Cantore) were her pride and joy as were her two grandsons, Thomas and Jared Green.  Never not ever once did Dorothy or Tommy fail to “be there” for them whether it meant helping with education tuition, downpayments for a first house, or (in Dorothy’s case living her devotion to her faith, especially Her Blessed Virgin) for them. (From an early age, Jared, emulated “Granny’s” example, and for the 12 years Dorothy lived in Rochester, NY, they attended Sunday mass side by side.)   The child who almost became a nun  became a woman of Catholic faith who said the rosary daily, and went to mass for the 40 days of lent, embraced her Orthodox Jewish son-in-law into her family and soon referred to him as “my second son.”  Throughout David Green’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, until his death 4 months after she very suddenly lost her beloved Tommy,  Dorothy persevered thru health challenges and heartache to “be there” for her family.

      Upon moving to St. John’s Meadows, an independent living apartment in her senior community just 1.5 miles from Jeanne’s home, Dorothy volunteered as a greeter at the door, sang with enthusiasm as a member of St. John’s choir, helped organize speakers for their monthly Ladies Breakfast, attended art, music and fitness classes, and was one of the annual talent show’s featured performers.  (Even as her dancing days declined, she was a natural to play Carmen Miranda, and at the next year’s show, her “Supreme Supremes” brought the house down.)  When in her 80’s she began to have difficulty with walking, she determinedly continued her streak of attending all of Tommy and Jared’s high school and college graduations from Rochester, NY, to Philadelphia, PA,  where at  age 80 she sat in a wheelchair bundled up against an unseasonably cold May day at Franklin Field (wouldn’t you just know that Tommy’s economics grads were the absolute last to receive their diploma among the thousands awarded?!)   A fall leaving her with a broken wrist and a 5 month recovery left Dorothy undaunted.   Without a word of complaint she gave up her driver’s license and acquired a walker --- both permanently.  That same year with her family’s help including that of her son and her now “Third Son,” David Coye (“Saint Dave”)  she flew to New Jersey, took a subway to The Prudential Center, and walked a mile to see her grandson earn his JD from (Catholic) Seton Hall Law.  Our Dorothy.  How blessed we have all been.  .  .  .

     When her health required 24/7 care, Dorothy spent her final 3 years a few miles from her “Danny Boy.”  As she prepared for what would be her last home, The Isle of Raider Ranch in Lubbock, Texas, she kissed her daughter good-bye saying, “Don’t you dare worry about me.  I have prayed to My Blessed Virgin Mary for a peaceful death, and “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.”

     On June 15, 2025, four days after enjoying her favorite dinner, Dorothy Joan Mahony Cantore passed away peacefully in her sleep.

     “Dottie” leaves behind her precious children and grandsons: daughter, Jean Cantore Green (David dec. 2002) son, Daniel Thomas Cantore (Jean Bowman Cantore) grandsons, Thomas S. Green (Laura Richards) and Jared A. Green as well as her dear: nephew and niece, Daniel & Edna Porcelli, “Third Son,” David Coye; “Sister Friend,” Margaret (“Margie”) Barosci; godson, David Barosci, and her “Other Utica Family,” Cheryl, Megan and Kyle Sexton.

     Her family wishes to thank the staff at Raider Ranch for their always patient and compassionate, 24/7 care.    

    After a private burial, the family will be celebrating Dorothy’s life during a memorial service at Heintz Funeral Home on June 28th.  Calling hours will be held from 10:00 -11:00 AM, and the service will follow at 11:00.