Loretta Santangelo, 63, who helped her husband’s business grow, died of emphysema Friday, Feb. 22, in her home in Wayne. Mrs. Santangelo was born in Chicago and graduated from Foreman High School. She married her husband, Michael, when she was 17 years old. The couple stayed in Chicago for a short time but eventually moved to the western suburbs, buying a home in Itasca. They lived in Medinah for 27 years before moving to Wayne, where they lived for the last 12 years. While still in her early 20s, Mrs. Santangelo helped her husband start his construction business, Nordic Builders and Associates. As the years went on, they formed MGM Properties. “She helped me out with everything in the office, keeping the books, anything that needed to be done. She did that plus raised her children,” Michael Santangelo said. Only last year did she stop working due to her illness, he said. Her dedication to her family is how she will be best remembered, her husband said. The couple’s children were the center of her life and she was theirs, he said. “As the children began to have children of their own, she helped raise them too,” he said. “We are all very close because of her.” Her illness kept her in a wheelchair the last two years of her life, but she would not stay at home, her husband said. “She wanted to be out, to be with me. She was very unselfish–a very, very giving woman who was a big part of many peoples’ lives,” he said. Mrs. Santangelo is also survived by two daughters, Patricia Cortino and Marie Young; a son, Michael W.; a sister, Virginia Byrd; five grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Funeral services will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Salerno’s Rosedale Chapels, 450 W. Lake St., Roselle, followed by a 10 a.m. mass in St. Walter Catholic Church, 40 W. Pine Ave., Roselle.
