Mary Terry Briganti of Montauk, a former elementary school teacher, died of a chronic lung infection on Nov. 13 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. She was 79 and had been ill with Parkinson’s disease for 15 years.
A graduate of Sacred Heart Academy, with a degree in education from Queens College, she taught at schools in Brooklyn and Lynbrook for 10 years.
On July 4, 1970, she married Daniel Briganti, who survives. During their 49 years of marriage, she had often joked that the fireworks on Independence Day were in celebration of their anniversary, her family said.
After the birth of the couple’s two daughters, she retired from teaching to raise them. When they were older, she earned a paralegal license and worked for several law firms before retiring from Keller, O’Reilly, and Watson in Woodbury.
Ms. Briganti loved to travel, and had especially fond memories of trips she had taken to Europe and Hawaii. A lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, she also enjoyed decorating her house, particularly during the holidays.
She attended church regularly and had been a member of St. Raymond’s Church in East Rockaway, the Church of St. Christopher in Baldwin, where she taught religious education, and, more recently, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton.
Born in Brooklyn on Jan. 24, 1940, to George Francis Hines and the former Rita Braguglia, she grew up there and in East Rockaway.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughters, Jennifer Costello of Dublin, Ohio, and Elizabeth Andracki of Meadville, Pa., and three grandchildren. Three siblings, Dianne Bell of Sarasota, Fla., Genevieve Dalpe of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and George Hines of Saranac Lake, N.Y., also survive.
A funeral Mass was said on Monday at Most Holy Trinity, followed by a burial at the church’s cemetery.
