Rosa Mignacca, who survived one of the worst battles of the Second World War as a girl in Italy and went on to raise six children in Everett, died in Melrose on October 24, 2026. She was 88.
She was born on November 5, 1937 in Cassino, Italy, the second of seven children of Emilio Palombo and Camella Contestabile. The town was destroyed in the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, and she lived through the displacement and hunger that followed. In 1964 she sailed alone to the United States and married Angelo Mignacca the same year. He died at 50, leaving her to carry the family, which she did.
She worked for years on the line at the Schrafft’s Candy Company in Charlestown until it closed in 1984, then in production at Abbott Laboratories until she retired. At home she made pasta and sauce, kept a garden, and told stories: of Italy, of the war, of the family, the same ones many times over, and her grandchildren asked for them anyway.
She leaves her children, Maria Mignacca-Griffin, Nicola Mignacca, Anna Colombo, Angelo Mignacca, Anthony Mignacca and Michael Mignacca; her grandchildren; her siblings; and many nieces and nephews.
Visiting hours are Thursday, October 29 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Robinson Funeral Home, 809 Main Street, Melrose. The funeral Mass is Friday, October 30 at 11:45 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Church, 38 Oakes Street, Everett; mourners should go directly to the church. Entombment follows at Holy Cross Mausoleum in Malden.
Compiled from information published by the funeral home. Photograph courtesy of the family via the funeral home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
