AGNES JOAN NEGRA (VERDI) NOVEMBER 13, 1919 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2022 Agnes Joan Negra (Verdi) of Forked River, NJ, formerly of Nutley, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on September, 9, 2022. She was Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Sister, Aunt, and a friend to many. Born in Boston, MA. on November 13, 1919, she was the sixth of eleven children of Carl and Domenica Verdi. She was married to August Edward Negra of Nutley on September 6, 1941. Agnes had a passion for life and for her family. She enjoyed playing the piano, crocheting, sewing, reading, and making dolls, especially for nieces and newborns. She also enjoyed her seventy year collection of china boxes given to her by family members and friends. One of her wishes was that each box be returned to the person who gave it to her or to their survivors. She had over 100 boxes that she treasured dearly. She was active with her husband for many years in civic and charitable organizations. They were charter members of the Nutley Amvets and Amfrens dedicating themselves to the care of veterans. In 2000, Agnes was recognized as an “Honorary Citizen of Boystown” after contributing for over seventy years to that historic home for boys started by Father Flanagan. Agnes was employed by Hoffman La Roche receiving several awards and recognitions for her accomplishments in the pharmaceutical company. She remained active for many years in the Roche Retirement Organization. The proudest moment of her life was a book, Waves of Hope, published about her for the extraordinary effort she did during World War II contacting American Prisoner of War families notifying them their soldiers were alive and in German Prisoner Camps. She did this by using a shortwave radio and listening every evening to Radio Berlin as the German government began announcing the names of American B17 Flyer Prisoners of War. She did this as a new mother while her husband was in the Army and wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. She was contacted by the POW families from all over America expressing their gratitude and giving them hope they would see their loved ones again. She did this without the knowledge of anyone in her family and her effort only became known when her son discovered a box of the Pow family letters that was sealed after the war. In 2021, after Waves of Hope was published, Agnes received the prestigious Daughters of the American Revolution “Women in History Award” as the book was nominated and accepted into the DAR National Library in Washington D.C. For her dedication to POW families, Agnes was named a “Homefront Hero” in the World War II Memorial in the nation’s capital. Agnes is survived by her daughter Patricia Ann Lerner and her husband Robert, and her son Ronald Edward Negra and his wife Valerie; also grandchildren Dr. Jason Todd Lerner and his wife Kelli; and Jennifer Lynn Losee and her husband James, as well as great grandchildren Ella Lerner, Chase Lerner, and Gavin Losee. Also, her brother Joseph Verdi, and sisters Pauline Criscuoli and Rose Lombarski as well as her health aide and friend Rosemary Ramos, twenty nine nieces and nephews and many great nieces and nephews. Her funeral arrangement and burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington conducted by Calhoun-Mania Funeral Home was private.

At her request, contributions can be made in her name to Boys Town at www.boystown.org or mailed to Boys Town, P.O. Box 8000, Boys Town, NE 68010 or to St. Jude Children’s Hospital at www.stjude.org.