Obituary: Melody Percoco, 1947-2016 

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• Melody Percoco

Melody Percoco, 68, passed away on her daughter’s birthday, August 21, 2016 at her home in Shelburne, VT from complications of metastatic lung cancer. She was predeceased by her brother, Michael, in 1999. Melody was born on November 4, 1947 in Bronx, NY to Dr. Michael and Mrs. Mary Percoco. She grew up in the Bronx area, graduated with a theatre degree from Long Island University in Brooklyn, and was notorious as one of the first female taxi drivers in NYC. She worked with theatre companies in NYC such as LaMama, Playhouse of the Ridiculous, and Theatre for the New City as a performer and lighting designer. Melody moved to Vermont in 1971, landing in the beautiful Northeast Kingdom, where she directed and produced theatre and music (Brighton-on-Clyde Players, Ten Mile Shuffle Band). In 1987 she moved to Burlington to start a 20 year career at United Airlines as a customer service representative and manager, and later settled in Shelburne where she has lived for the past 20 years. In retirement, she worked joyfully delivering Seven Days throughout the state in her Subaru, and at the box office at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. She loved to play serious games of poker, watch old black and white movies, could beat almost anyone at Scrabble, travelled extensively (favorite places being Aruba, Italy, and Australia), was never more full of love than when she became a grandmother in 2014, and was a long-time volunteer with the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival affectionately known as the “jazzmamma.”

She is survived by her daughter Liana C. Percoco, son-in-law Andrew Mall, and granddaughter Michaela, of Boston; many cousins along the east coast; and her large family of loving friends from across Vermont, the place she loved so much and called home. She was laid to rest with her passed family at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York on Saturday, August 27th. A local memorial service will be held in Vermont later this Fall. Her family is thankful to the gracious caregivers from the VNA Hospice. In lieu of flowers and such, we wish for donations in her memory to the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Online condolences can be made at ballarddurand.com.