Conchita Fernandez

Connie (Conchita) Fernandez was the youngest of three hijas born in New York City on November 20, 1925 to Emilio y Carmen Fernández, immigrants from Galicia, Spain. With her hermanas, she grew up playing in Central Park, hanging with the youth group at St. Paul's Parish on the westside of Manhattan, learning English in school and speaking Spanish at home.

She was traditioned into her love of baking, donuts, and most pastries, by her father, a baker who would treat his young daughters with homemade buñuelos on weekends. Connie could sew, crochet, and knit; skills passed on from her seamstress Mom who made most of their clothes growing up. Connie's fashion sense extended to shoes and purses, and in her middle years, she relished trips to Outlet Malls where inevitably she found the best prices, especially on socks.

Education was her passion and she enjoyed school, fondly remembering her days at St Paul's Elementary School and Cathedral High School in NYC. Aunt Connie was the first college graduate in our family, returning to CUNY to finish the bachelor's degree she had started almost three decades earlier at Hunter College during World War II. She earned both her BA and Master's degrees at Queens College and completed course work for a PhD in Spanish Language and Literature.

In the hiatus between her interrupted undergraduate studies, she worked for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of NY, Anaconda Copper, and the shipping firm T. J. Stevenson & Company. In 1957, she joined the NY Yankees as secretary to Bob Fishel, the director of public relations, and, in time, Introduced her nieces and nephew to the marvels of Yankee Stadium. Respected by the sportswriters and her colleagues within the Yankee organization, her leaving the team in January 1967 made the local and national papers. The Sporting News reported Connie's words, "Naturally, I will miss baseball and all the fellows, but I just had to follow my dream of being a teacher."

A consummate teacher, she spent many years teaching in every imaginable context. She educated college students, prepped folks for the GED, taught español to English-speakers and English to hispanoparlantes. Even her familia benefited. She tutored her sobrina Mary Louise, showed Spain to her niece Anita, translated publications for her sobrina Carmen Marie, and mostly shook her head at the Spanglish of her nephew Chip. An extraordinarily generous tía abuela, she helped support the youngest generation of her familia in their pursuit of higher education.

Connie loved to travel. She sailed to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth in 1950 for the Holy Year. Over the course of her life, her wanderlust brought her to Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico; back to London and Rome; through the Panama Canal; across the USA from Florida to Alaska. She frequently went to Spain with touring university students in tow, or to visit familia in the hometown of her galego parents. As kids, we got to see the world through her postcards, and relive her adventures flying around the living room as she piloted the imaginary airplane we would board upon her return. She enjoyed cruises and, later in life, she hit the road with her sister Carmen and brother-in-law Chuck (Nanko) as they tested their luck in Atlantic City and Mohegan Sun.

Tía Connie was a magical aunt, like Julie Andrews, somewhere between Maria from Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Besides summer afternoons at Yankee Stadium, there were trips to the city, the movies, Cafe Alex, Top of the Sixes, and later tea parties with her great nieces.

Connie was the keeper of the family memory; a bridge to familia en España and primas in Florida; the custodian of countless letters, photos and recipes; the traditioner of empanada gallega and flan; and the purveyor of chorizos and turrón for the holidays.

For almost a century, Connie cultivated meaningful and lasting friendships, cared about her neighbors, her students and her caregivers, and graciously supported those in need. Aunt Connie's was a love that didn't quit, and that lives on in her family: in her nieces and nephew - Carmen Marie (Nanko-Fernández), Mary Louise (Cardosa), Anita (Reagan), Chip (Charles Nanko); in her great-nieces and great-nephew - Alto (Danielle Cardosa), Alyssa (Nanko), Jessica (Nanko), BC (Cardosa); in those she embraced and chose as her own, Karen McDonald (Nanko), Peter (Reagan), Robert (Cardosa), Jean-Pierre Ruiz.

She is preceded in glory by her parents, her hermanas-Mary (Campo) and Carmen (Nanko), her brothers-in-law Julián (Titi) Campo and Charles (Chuck) Nanko, her nephew-in-law Robert Cardosa, and familia, amigos y amigas as numerous as the stars. On February 15, 2025, in the company of family, Connie Fernandez journeyed home, reuniting con su madre, su padre y sus hermanas, with familia and loved ones she has long missed. Wrapped in the Divine embrace, may her memory be a blessing.