On Monday evening, January 30, 2023 Mary Josephine (Peretto) Antista passed away peacefully in her home at the age of 99. Mary was a lifelong Trinidad native. She graduated from Holy Trinity Catholic High School, worked at the Trinidad Creamery after high school, and married Joseph A. Antista after he returned fror telephone operator for Mountain Bell of AT&T, both before and after Trinidad got dial-up rotary phones. Her fellow telephone operators became life-long friends. When the telephone company no longer needed operators in Trinidad, Mary began a period focused on family and grandchildren, and assisting her husband Joe’s work for IDS. Mary returned to school at age 54 for a nursing degree from Trinidad Jr. College. After graduating she worked as a nurse at Mt. San Rafael Hospital, where one of her teachers in the TSJC nursing program had assisted at Mary’s own birth in 1924. This decades long connection was typical of Mary’s deep and wide friendships in the Trinidad area for nearly a century. At home Mary baked bread and sewed for her daughters and granddaughters, and crocheted dozens of afghans for family. All who knew her appreciated her one of a kind spunk, her generosity, her deep love of family, and her friendship. It was her wish that she be remembered with smiles and laughter, for that is how she lived.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents Oreste Peretto and Rose Dighiera Peretto, siblings Bernard Peretto and Carolyn Peretto Brunelli, her husband Joe A. Antista, and many of her aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. She is survived by her children Jolyne, Debbie, and Joseph; grandchildren Brian, Kevin and Kim, Maria, Amy and Nick, David, Jessica and Renaud, John, Sara, and Alyssa; great grandchildren Madison, Nicoli, Greyson, Henry, Rosa, and Arlo, plus one due very soon, and step great-grandsons, Harrison and Rayne.

Visitation will be at Comi Chapel on Thursday, February 9 from 3:00pm to 7:00 pm, followed immediately by the Rosary at 7:00pm. Funeral Mass will be at 10:00 am at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Trinidad, followed by internment at the Trinidad Catholic Cemetery.

Pall bearers are grandsons Brian Leone, Kevin Leone, and John Jeffers, and nephews John Joseph Navara, Charles John Antista and Roger Brunelli.

Arrangements by Comi Funeral Home of Trinidad.