Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

Obituary: Suzanne F. Volante

Fri, Jan 18th 2019 04:00 pm

Suzanne F. Volante of Grand Island died peacefully Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, at Kenmore Mercy Hospital. She was 96.

She was born March 4, 1922, in Niagara Falls, New York, the daughter and only child of the late Herman Fritz and Germaine (née Strigiotti) Huguenin-Benjamin, newly arrived immigrants from Switzerland.

Suzanne graduated from Niagara Falls High School in 1940, where she played the Hawaiian guitar in the band.

In 1942, she joined the war effort by working at Bell Aircraft in Wheatfield. In 1944, Suzanne married Lt. Cmdr. Leonard Greene, USAAC, who was lost on a mission later that year. In 1946 she began working for the City of Niagara Falls, retiring in 1977. Suzanne married Francis C. Volante in 1950, in Niagara Falls, and they were happily married for 55 years until his death in 2005. They had two sons by which she is survived; Francis Bruce (Jennifer Burbank) Volante of Niagara Falls and Gary Alan (William Emms) Volante of Grand Island.

Suzanne was a lifelong active Lutheran and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. She was also a member of the Swiss Club of WNY and a proud Niagara Falls “Northender.” Suzanne was fiercely devoted to her family, which was paramount in her life. She was a loving wife and a wonderful mother. Suzanne loved her home and working outside in her garden. She also enjoyed cooking, entertaining and her glass of wine, to which she attributed her longevity. She loved to travel as well; having cruised the Mediterranean and Caribbean, as well as trips to the West Coast and Canadian Rockies. Most of all, she looked forward to her many trips “home” to Switzerland to visit with her many aunts, uncles and cousins, whom she held so dear. Suzanne was one of a kind, a “tough old bird” as she liked to say, and she will be dearly missed.

In addition to her sons, Suzanne is survived by several nieces and nephews, including Barbara “Dee-Dee” Shanahan, whom she considered “the daughter she never had,” and numerous cousins in Switzerland; also survived by dear friends and neighbors.

The family will be present to receive friends on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the (Delaware Chapel) Amigone Funeral Home Inc., 1132 Delaware Ave., Buffalo (at West Ferry). Funeral services will be held on Saturday from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 1080 Main St., Buffalo at 10:30 a.m. Family and friends are asked to please assemble at the church. Entombment to follow in Forest Lawn Cemetery. If desired, memorials may be made to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Share condolences at www.AMIGONE.com.

Hometown News

View All News