KROLL - Connie M. (nee Salerno) Of Hamburg, NY, April 30, 2021 at age 88. Beloved wife of the late Richard J. Kroll; loving mother of Christopher J. Kroll; dear sister of Marie (late Jack) Castronova, Joseph (Eleanora) Salerno and the late Frank Salerno; also survived by nieces and nephews. Visitation at the KOLANO FUNERAL HOME, 396 Amherst St. (near Grant), Thursday, 4-8 PM where prayers will be held Friday at 9 AM followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at Assumption Church at 9:30 AM. Please keep in mind that face coverings are required. Interment Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Connie was a member of the Ad Club Women’s Organization. Donations in Connie’s memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Online condolences at www.KOLANOFUNERALHOME.com
OBITUARY - Published in The Buffalo News by Staff Reporter, Dale Anderson.
June 27, 1932 – April 30, 2021
Connie M. Kroll, an illustrator whose work appeared in newspaper ads for Buffalo department stores from the 1950s to the 1980s, died April 30 in her home in Hamburg after a brief illness. She was 88.
Born Concetta M. Salerno in Buffalo, the oldest of four children, she attended Holy Cross School and was a 1950 graduate of Holy Angels Academy, where the yearbook observed that she was “noted for her artistic ability” and “can always be consulted to obtain the latest Paris fashions.”
As an apprentice commercial artist, she frequently shared food she made with others in the studio, her son Christopher said, which led to catering requests for parties in Delaware Avenue mansions.
She went on to set up her own office in the former Genesee Building downtown, where she produced fashion illustrations for department stores until the mid 1960s, when she married and became a caretaker for her mother, who had multiple sclerosis.
Her son said Mrs. Kroll then worked from an upstairs studio in her home, where she gave art classes and continued her commercial work until the early 1980s. She also decorated windows for the L.L. Berger department store.
“She had this real distinct sophisticated style,” her son recalled. “My uncles would bring fashions from the stores and set them up on mannequins so she could do the artwork and the next day they’d take back the clothes and the artwork. Sometimes I was the mannequin.”
She was a past president and treasurer of the Ad Club Women of Buffalo.
Her husband of 31 years, Richard J. Kroll, who died in 1996, was an electronics expert who headed the Buffalo Public Schools’ audiovisual department for many years and was a community activist on the West Side.
She joined her husband in West Side volunteer work. In addition, she organized field trips for neighborhood children to museums, amusement parks and other attractions and natural wonders on both sides of the border.
“She’d get buses and take them to places they wouldn’t ordinarily go to,” her son said. “She took them up to Toronto a couple times.”
She volunteered for the March of Dimes, the American Cancer Society and the Variety Club and assisted in raising funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
She applied her culinary skills on behalf of the Quaker Bonnet, the Junior League of Buffalo and the early Gambit fundraisers for Canisius High School. She also was a supporter of Shea’s Performing Arts Center and Studio Arena Theatre.
A Hamburg resident for the past 10 years, she was a longtime parishioner at the former Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church on Buffalo’s West Side and later attended Assumption Catholic Church in Black Rock.
In addition to her son, survivors include a sister, Marie Castronova; a brother, Joseph Salerno; and nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered May 7 in Assumption R.C. Church, 435 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.