On Saturday March 23, 2019, Josephine departed this life peacefully, surrounded by her family at the age of 101 from natural causes and in the arms of her son Michael. Besides her son, she is survived by her daughter, Rosemary (Dan); seven grandchildren and eight great-children; two sisters, Eleanor (George) Spagnola (98) of Marlboro and Reta (Lee) Behnke (94) of Highland; sister-in-law “Peggy” (Lindy) Palladino (89) of Highland and ten nieces and nephews. Her husband of 49 years, Fletcher and eldest son, Ronald predeceased her.
In 2017 while in Florida, she suffered a stroke after surgery for a fractured hip. Although the stroke left her unable to speak and walk she continued to communicate in a most remarkable way without words. She had an unadulterated joy for life and ability to share that with everyone she met. During her twenty-four months stay, she spread love and kindness to everyone she came in contact with at the West Broward Rehabilitation Center.
Born in Brooklyn in 1917, Maria Giuseppa Palladino, Josephine was one of seven surviving children to Michael and Mary Palladino and moved with her family circa in 1925 to Highland. As a child she often had to pick raspberries and various other fruits and vegetables before starting her day. She had to leave school at age 14 to help support the family by working as a seamstress in Poughkeepsie. In 1940 she married Fletcher Rhodes, and helped build their two businesses, Valley Garage and Valley Apartments in Highland, for more than twenty years. When her husband, Fletcher, was stricken with a debilitating illness early in 1968, she was left alone to face the challenges of running two businesses along with raising her family of three children. However, with her strong faith to guide and strengthen her, she persevered and prevailed growing to see all of her children and the majority of her grandchildren graduate college while caring for Fletcher at home for more than twenty years. She was always quick to say by word and example to her grand and great-grandchildren: “it doesn’t take a strong, big heart to withstand the difficulties in life; but rather, it is the difficulties in life that help you build a strong, big heart”.
She volunteered in numerous religious organizations, becoming a founding member of the St. Augustine School Mothers’ Society and the St. Augustine Altar Society, teaching religious instruction, and volunteering in the school library. For sixty years, she devoted her time to clean her church, ironing the priests’ garments and altar cloths. For decades, she dedicated her time, service, and home to the Mother Cabrini Order in West Park. During this time she also worked in the Highland School District as a Cafeteria Baker and Cashier from 1971 to 1991. She learned all the students’ names and made it a point to be kind and talk with them as they passed her way in the food line.
Upon retirement, she spent more than 25 winters in South Florida with her children, traveled and enjoyed spring and summers in Highland with her family and friends. Her travels included trips on numerous occasions throughout the US, Europe and the Mediterranean by air, auto and cruise ships. Always ready to take on a new adventure, she rode a mountain ski lift on the Island of Capri on her 90th birthday to the cheers of by-standers, attended a private party in her honor at a local vineyard in Sicily, drove a sports car and enjoyed a cross Atlantic sail on the famed Queen Elizabeth I ocean liner. She sailed on a steamboat up the Mississippi, dined in New Orleans and marched on Bourbon Street. Her love of travel brought her to the small village of Sala Consilina in the Campania region of Southern Italy to visit the house of her father’s birth and visit his family in 1975 for a sunny afternoon of laughter and libation.
She leaves behind a legacy of love - she loved her family and people. If you knew her, you know how special she made you feel. That is the memory that will forever live in the hearts and minds of those she knew and we are all eternally grateful for it. She will be greatly missed.
Visitation will be at the Michael Torsone Memorial Funeral Home, Inc., 38 Main St. Highland, NY 12528, on Friday, May 31st from 4-8pm. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Augustine’s Church in Highland on June 1st, at 10 am followed by a burial service at the Highland Cemetery, with an open reception at her home of 80 years in Highland in celebration of her life well lived. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Augustine’s Parish in Highland.