It is with great sadness that the family of Dorothy Anne Galeone Howell announce that she passed away at the age of 104 on Sunday, December 8, 2024.  "Gram" was our family's role model and matriarch, and she was the best woman we knew.  Born on August 23, 1920, in Riverside, RI, Dorothy was the third of seven children in an Irish-Italian family.  She graduated from St. Mary Academy - Bay View and a nursing school affiliated with Yale University.  She cherished the years she spent working as a labor and delivery nurse at the Homeopathic Hospital of Rhode Island.  In 1945, she married Herman Howell.  They lived in New York and Indiana before settling in Grenada, MS in 1956.  She was a doting mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great-great grandmother.  Dorothy was a long-time member of St. Peter's Catholic Church, serving for decades as eucharistic minister and attending daily mass.  God and family meant everything to Dorothy.  Into her 80s, she cooked delicious meals each weekday just in case a hungry family member dropped by (and knowing this, we always did).  Her spaghetti, meatballs, and hot Italian sausage were legendary.   She loved to travel, crochet, and cheer on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team.  We will dearly miss Gram's unconditional love, quick wit, friendship, and food.

She is survived by her children Suzanne Robinson and her husband Clyde, Steve Howell and his wife Sandra, and Deborah Patterson; her grandchildren Stephanie Raper and her husband David, Matthew Howell and his wife Sabrina, Nathan Howell and his wife Jennifer, and Casey Patterson; her great grandchildren Alexandra Holland-Upp and her husband Matthew, and Cooper, Macy, and Rebecca Howell; her great-great grandchildren Taylor and Bentley Upp; and a host of adoring nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her six siblings, her husband Herman, and her son-in-law Roger.

A funeral mass will be celebrated at 1:00 PM Wednesday, December 11, 2024, at St. Peter Catholic Church in Grenada.  Family and friends will gather one hour prior to mass on Wednesday at the church.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to St. Jude or Methodist Children's Homes of Mississippi which facilitated the adoption of her great-great grandson Bentley.