Claire H. Scapellati died on Wednesday, Dec. 23 in Duxbury.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to the late Mary (LaGreca) and Calvin Picone, she graduated from Central Connecticut State College where she met her husband, the late Nicholas Daniel Scapellati. While teaching at Sunset Ridge School in East Hartford, she received her Masters Degree in counseling from the University of Hartford. They married and moved to Bloomfield, Conn. When their children were all of school age, Mrs. Scapellati returned to teaching at Sacred Heart School in Bloomfield. Four years later she was appointed school principal, becoming the first lay principal in the Archdiocese of Hartford.

After 18 years as teacher and principal, she retired, but her retirement was short-lived as she was asked to teach at St. Mary’s School in Simsbury. Mrs. Scapellati taught at St. Mary’s until she officially retired and moved to Orleans. She loved to travel, especially to Italy, was an avid gardener, a devout Catholic, and a watercolor artist. Soon after moving to Orleans, she began exhibiting her work in galleries on the Lower Cape and in Duxbury.

Mrs. Scapellati leaves her children, Joanne Protasewich and her husband, Ron, of Duxbury, Daniel Scapellati and his wife, Nancy, of Avon, Conn., and Lisa Scapellati of Orleans; her sisters, Marie Durney, Gloria Bryan, and Anne Marie Picone; and eight grandchildren. She was also the sister of the late Norma Negron and Dianne Pignato.

A Mass of Christian burial was held in the Church of St. Ann in Avon, Conn. on Dec. 29 followed by the burial in Mountain View Cemetery in Bloomfield, Conn.  The 8:15 a.m. Mass will be said in her memory on Jan. 23 in the chapel at Holy Family Church in Duxbury. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to St. Anne-Immaculate Conception Church (Soup Kitchen), 820 Park Street, Hartford, CT 06106, or to A Woman’s Concern, 48 Camp Street, Hyannis, MA 02601.