Carole Porta

Carole Marie Porta was born Dec 11, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York to the late Rose (Agatone) and James Cerchione.

Carole grew up in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn and attended New Utrecht High School. She met her future husband, the late Artie Porta, at a family wedding and they were married on November 7, 1959 at St. Francis De Chantal Church in Brooklyn. They continued to live in Borough Park until 1977, when they moved to the Marine Park section of Brooklyn.

While her daughter, Denise Merrill, was in elementary school, Carole was a Girl Scout leader and was also involved with the St. Francis De Chantal PTA.

Several years after Artie passed away, Carole moved to Plano, Texas in 1996 to be with her daughter Denise, her son-in-law Tim, and to watch her grandchildren, Kevin and Carley, grow up. The biggest change in her life came when she started to drive for the first time after moving to Texas.

She worked for JC Penny in their catalogue department for sixteen years, retiring in 2012.

Carole was an active parishioner at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Plano, Texas where she was involved with the shawl ministry, women's club and RCIA. She was a volunteer at Waterford Assisted Living in Plano, doing arts and crafts with the residents.

Carole's life revolved around food. She enjoyed going out to lunch and dinner with her friends and would host movie nights, cooking dinner, at her house. What brought her the most joy was cooking Sunday and holiday dinners for her family. Special occasions would mean her fried calamari.

In addition to her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, Carole is survived by many loving family members.

The family will receive friends at a visitation at 7:00 pm on Thursday, May 21, 2015 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2700 W. Spring Creek Pkwy., Plano, Texas 75023. A mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church on Friday, May 22, 2015 with interment following at the church's columbarium.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2700 W. Spring Creek Pkwy., Plano, Texas 75023 or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at PO Box 1000; Dept. 142Memphis, Tennessee 38148, by calling 800-822-6344 or online at www.stjude.org/tributes Please reference tribute # 38308874 when making donations to St. Jude.