Funeral Mass for Grace Elizabeth Correro Mosley, 97, a lifelong resident of Greenville, will be at 11:00 a.m., Friday, August 3 at St. Joseph Catholic Church. She died on Saturday, July 28 in Alexandria, VA. Burial will be in the Greenville Cemetery under the direction of Boone Funeral Home, Greenville.
Grace was born November 5, 1920, in Greenville. Her father, Sam Frank Correro immigrated to Greenville at age 12 in 1892 from Cefalu, Sicily. Her mother, Mary Grace Correro was born in Baton Rouge, LA, in 1887, and arrived in Greenville in 1890 with her parents John and Minnie Dantone Serio Correro, also immigrants from Cefalu, Sicily. Sam Frank was the son of Frank Correro who was among the first Italian immigrants to arrive in Greenville in 1882. All of the Correros who came to Greenville in the 1880s–1890s established themselves as merchants and wholesalers. They owned a number of markets and wholesale businesses in Greenville and across the Delta and Northern Mississippi, including Leland, Indianola, Belzoni, Rosedale, Glen Allan, Greenwood, Starkville, and Sturgis.
Grace would vividly remember the events of the Great Flood of 1927. Her family’s home on South Hinds Street was flooded up to the eaves of the house. Furniture and other valuables were placed on scaffolding which reached nearly to the ceiling of their house. She recalled the evacuation which transported her, her sisters and her mother, first by steamboat to Vicksburg, then by railroad from Vicksburg to Starkville where they lived with relatives from April until November, 1927.
Grace was a graduate of St. Rose of Lima Academy, the school of St. Joseph Catholic Church, administered by the Sisters of Mercy and made famous by William Alexander Percy III in his autobiography Lanterns on the Levee. He too received his earliest education from the Sisters of Mercy at St. Rose of Lima.
Grace married Raymond Mosley of Glen Allan in 1942. Raymond was a World War II Army veteran who served with the Thunderbird Division, the 45th U.S. Infantry in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Southern France, and Germany. He was wounded in action at Anzio and was awarded the Purple Heart. He was a member of the 179th Infantry which liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945.
Grace was a lifelong homemaker and the loving mother of three children: Raymond (Julia) of Washington, DC; Judy Abdo (William) of Madison, MS; and Robert of Greenville.
A devout Catholic, Grace worshipped faithfully at St. Joseph Catholic Church. She was active in all community related efforts of the Church. She received the blessing of Saint John Paul II on the occasion of her 80th birthday. At age 87, her son and daughter-in-law took her on a month long trip to Italy where she received the blessing of Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s in the Vatican. During her trip to Italy, she also visited Cefalu, Sicily, and saw the birthplace of her father and the Baptismal Urn in the Duomo of Cefalu where her father was baptized.
She is preceded in death by her father Sam Frank Correro (1932) and her mother Mary Grace Correro (1982). She is also preceded in death by her husband Raymond (1983) and her son Robert (2017).
Grace had 3 brothers and 3 sisters, all of whom preceded her in death. Her brothers were Lee (1914), John (1918), and Frank (1923); her sisters were Minnie (1991), Josephine (2006) and Rosalie (2007).
She is survived by her son, Raymond (Julia) of Washington, DC and her daughter, Judy Abdo (William) of Madison, MS; four grandchildren, Adrienne Mosley Vincent (Sean) of Kensington, MD, Raymond Andrew Mosley (Erin) of Woodmoor, MD, Brian Matthew Mosley of Washington, DC and William Abdo of Jackson, MS; and six great grandchildren, Madeline Mosley Vincent, Addison Grace Mosley, Raymond Alexander Mosley, Liam Abdo, Maddy Abdo, and Little Abdo.
There will be a visitation from 6:00-7:00 p.m., Thursday, August 2 at St. Joseph Catholic Church.