Edna May (Willenbrock) Tarantola

Edna May (Willenbrock) Tarantola, 97, passed away peacefully on November 6, 2025 in hospice care surrounded by her family.

Born in Milltown, NJ, on August 29, 1928, Edna was the youngest of three children born to Henry Carl Willenbrock and Loda Adelia (Johnson) Willenbrock. Her older brothers, Henry Carl III, and Allen William always looked out for their younger sister. Edna attended New Brunswick High School, where she sang in the choir and made many lifelong friends. After graduating, she worked for Rutgers University and then as a bookkeeper for the Rutgers Federal Credit Union, and remained there for her entire 43 year career. In 1956, she married the love of her life, Raymond Tarantola, and together they raised three children in Milltown - Patty, Kathy, and Ray.

A devoted member of Saint Paul's United Church of Christ and the American Legion Post 25 Women's Auxiliary, Edna dedicated countless hours to her community. She served as a Girl Scout Troop Leader when her daughters were young, taught Sunday School and sang in the choir at St. Paul's, and was an active member of the church's Women's Guild. Every Friday night, she could be found volunteering in the kitchen at the American Legion's Bingo night, while her husband Ray strolled between the rows of bingo players handing out cards and checking the winners. Edna proudly walked in Milltown's Fourth of July parade with her fellow members of the American Legion’s Women's Auxiliary. Edna continued to wear her red Auxiliary shirt proudly each July 4th, including this past summer.

Edna cherished her lifelong friends from high school, and they would meet faithfully each week to socialize and play cards and games. On Mom’s ladies’ card nights, we kids would say our polite hellos and then scoot away. We could hear the laughing chatter for the rest of the evening.

After her husband Ray passed away in 2001, she became confident as a widowed woman and lived a fully independent life. In her later years, Edna moved to Sea Isle City, NJ, where she enjoyed morning walks with her sister-in-law Florence Willenbrock, bike rides with her brother Allen, and many happy hours with her Mahjong group. She was an active member of the local AARP chapter, helping plan and participate in many of their trips and activities. She made many friends who would place their chairs at the water’s edge, dip their toes, and talk for hours.

At the start of Covid, at 92, Edna sadly left the Jersey shore to move in with her daughter Kathy and son-in-law Michael in Waltham, MA. She dearly missed her friends and social life in Sea Isle. The last few years, when the family returned for our annual Jersey shore vacation, mom’s mahjong friends held a luncheon in her honor. In Massachusetts, she loved doing jigsaw puzzles and completed one just days before she passed.

She is survived by her loving children—Patty Chen of Reston, VA; Kathy Tarantola and her husband Michael Prince of Waltham, MA; and Ray Tarantola and his wife Wendy of Franklin, MA —as well as four grandchildren: Matthew Chen, Lindsey Tarantola, Evan Tarantola, and Carly Tarantola. She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Raymond, and her brothers, Carl and Allen Willenbrock.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday December 27th from 3-5 at the Copper House Tavern, 380 Winter Street, Waltham, MA. Family and friends are invited to attend and share stories of our lovely mother.

Edna’s ashes will be interred in the spring, together with her husband Ray, at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown, NY where generations of her family are buried in the ancestral family plot.

We are grateful to the care team at Good Shepherd Community Care who has provided palliative care for mom over the last year. They are the first hospice care organization in Massachusetts and in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Good Shepherd Community Care, a local hospice, or the Hospice Foundation. The care and support they provide to patients and families is invaluable.

Expressions of sympathy may be made to https://gscommunitycare.org/Donate or www.hospicefoundation.org/donate