SCARBOROUGH – Elsie (Polli) DeSanctis passed away peacefully on July 30, 2020, surrounded by family. She was born November 7, 1923, in Mineola, N.Y., and spent most of her life in Vineland, N.J.

Elsie grew up during the depression but her loving parents made sure she had a wonderful childhood swimming, dancing, and roller skating away her free time. She was also a talented artist and did many water colors and cross stitches. Her love of the Big Band music never stopped. She couldn’t hear a Glenn Miller, Andrews Sisters, or other ’40s music without her shoulders moving and her feet tapping. She was a great dancer.

She graduated from Vineland High School in 1941 and met and married Julio DeSanctis in 1942. They had seven children before she was widowed at age 47. She was always a loving mother and grandmother. Elsie retired as the City of Vineland Switch Board Operator in 1983.

Elsie was predeceased by her husband Julio DeSanctis Jr. in 1971, their oldest child and only son, Julio III in 2011, and her brother and only sibling, Richard Polli in 2015.

She is survived by her six daughters: twins, Barbara Shapiro and her husband Alan Shapiro, and Beverly Johnson, Marjorie DeSanctis and her husband Fred Phillips, Jacalyn DeSanctis-Matkowski and her husband Ted Matkowski, Cheryl DeSanctis, and Nicola DeSanctis and her fiancé Andrew Szilva. She is also survived by 14)grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren expected in September 2020.

A service will be held at Hobbs Funeral Home, 671 US RT 1, Scarborough, Maine, on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, at 2 p.m.

We will have a memorial service in Vineland, N.J., at a future date post pandemic.

In lieu of flowers, Elsie would like donations made to Kaler-Vaill, a women’s retirement home where she found companionship and caring supportive staff for many years before moving in with her daughter Marjorie and her husband Fred. Please send donations to: Kaler-Vaill, In Memory of Elsie DeSanctis,

382 Black Point Road,

Scarborough, ME 04074.