Maureen A. (Pearson) Costello

Maureen A. (Pearson) Costello, 77, of Elmira, N.Y., died Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, at her home with her family singing, sharing stories, celebrating life and helping ease her transition together. She has rejoined her late husband, Allan S. Costello, her parents, Charles and Dorothy Pearson, and her granddaughter, Lillian Rioux.

Born in Brooklyn, Maureen spent the majority of her life in Elmira, where she gave much of herself to educating young minds, serving the community and improving the world around her. She earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Albany and a master’s degree from Elmira College. She was a teacher for many years in the Elmira and Corning-Painted Post school districts. Often motivated to create opportunities for her children, she drew on her innovative spirit to help establish the Chemung Sailfish Swim Team, the Summer Repertory Company of the Finger Lakes and the Zonta Club of Elmira’s Spotlight on Talent. She was also the support behind the Summer Seminar on the Performing Arts, which her daughter ran for two decades.

She served as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader for her three daughters and helped organize an after-school gymnastics program at Hopkins Elementary. Maureen was the mother who would make homemade Halloween costumes that were the envy of Holdridge Street, coordinated makeshift triathlons and obstacle courses for the neighborhood kids, ordered pizzas for her son and his friends playing backyard football and hosted baby doll birthday parties for her daughters and their friends. She taught religion classes, led the youth group and sang in the choir at Trinity Episcopal Church in Elmira.

Maureen was an active member of the Zonta Club of Elmira for nearly three decades, and served as its president and chair of the club’s Centennial Celebration in 2019. Throughout her time with Zonta, she initiated a steady stream of projects, events, dinners, card parties, cookie exchanges and fundraisers, including the popular Trivia Night. She also served on the Zonta International District 2 Board of Directors. A recipient of the 2011 Chemung County Woman of Distinction Award, Maureen always tried to support community efforts such as participating in the Empty Bowls Project, reading at the Women Who Write event, volunteering at the Ida V. Shop and coordinating a workshop to combat human trafficking.

Perhaps her largest impact was as the matriarch of her family. No reason was too small to gather together to celebrate and connect with each other. She nurtured all of her children’s and grandchildren’s talents and interests, and pushed them to be better every day. She wrapped each of them in so much love that they could easily take risks and try new things, as they would bounce back if they stumbled. She stretched a dollar as far as it could go, and was willing to sacrifice her own comforts to ensure that her children had the sneakers, baseball gloves, dance costumes – and more importantly, the experiences that helped them thrive.

Grandkids had full access to the fine china for their tea, milk or juice, and to the old T-shirt drawer so they could get messy with whatever project she set up for them, whether that be painting, bunny-cake making, crayon melting or bobbing for apples. She tried to be a loving role model for her two younger sisters–except when playing pinochle, Scrabble or dominos–and kept the “Pearson coven” strong across generations. She was also a caring and supportive aunt and sister-in-law. She preferred walking in the gorge to taking the trail, using her hands instead of a paintbrush, and china dishes and cloth napkins to paper ones. She once sang “Friends in Low Places” on the Radio City Music Hall stage, had “her dance” performed on stages across Europe and mastered “the dab” to her family’s delight.

Surviving are her children, Charles (LaDonna) Costello of Fayette, N.Y.; Joyce Costello Baldwin of Elmira, N.Y.; Nellie (Robert) Rioux of Syracuse, N.Y.; and Margaret (James) Spillett of Fulton, N.Y.; sisters, Daureen Spaziani of Elmira and Ellen Pearson of Elmira; grandchildren, Erica (Christopher) Zwart of Vestal, N.Y.; Alicia (Robert) Lance of Sandy Springs, Ga.; Aidan, Emily and Evan Costello of Fayette, N.Y.; Robert, Madeline, Thomas and Josephine Rioux of Syracuse, N.Y.; and Bernadette “Bunny” Baldwin of Elmira, N.Y.; great-grandsons, Max Zwart and Henry Lance; and great-granddaughter, Parker Zwart; nephew, Andrew Spaziani of Elmira; niece, Laura Spaziani Graham of Brooklyn; and Checker, her canine companion.

The family will host calling hours at Olthof Funeral Home from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. A private committal service will be held at a later date at Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira. To help keep her generous spirit alive, gifts can be made to the Allan S. and Maureen A. Costello Memorial Scholarship, administered by the Community Foundation, at https://communityfund.org/give/.