… former owner of SonJon Associates, owned Firebell Gift Shop; 83
WEST DENNIS, MA - Sonja I. (Kartuz) Cuneo, age 83, a former Tewksbury School Committeewoman and Real Estate Broker, died Wednesday morning, January 24, at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, after a courageous battle with multiple health issues. She was beloved wife and best friend of retired Tewksbury Fire Department Deputy John C.”Jack” Cuneo, with whom she had celebrated a fifty-fifth wedding anniversary this past September.
She was born in Manhattan, N.Y.C. in May 1934, one of four children of the late Michael and Mathild Kartuz, and raised in NYC. After graduation from High School, she attended college and worked at the United Nations in NYC. After moving to Massachusetts, she worked as a secretary at Sylvania in Woburn, when she met her future husband. After their marriage, Sonja and John lived in Tewksbury for over twenty-five years while raising their family. She and her husband co-founded and successfully operated SonJon Associates Real Estate brokerage company in Tewksbury until retiring to Cape Cod thirty years ago, when they opened and operated The Firebell gift shop. Sonja also worked at Surette Real Estate and Martin Real Estate after moving to “The Cape.”
Sonja served on the Tewksbury School Committee for two terms during the massive and difficult reorganization of the Tewksbury School Department forced by the implementation of Proposition 2 and ½ .
Besides her husband, she leaves a daughter, Heather Burns and her husband James of No.Tewksbury; three granddaughters, Cassia, Jaime, and Chloe Burns; a brother, Michael J.Kartuz of Vista, CA; and was predeceased by her beloved son, Michael Cuneo in 2005; and two sisters, the late Dorothea Forier formerly of Naples, FL and the late Nellie Romano formerly of Dennis, MA.
A private Memorial Graveside Service will be held at the Tewksbury Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials to the Dana Farber Institute P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284-9168 - or danafarber.myplannedgift.org - will be appreciated. Arrangements are through the Tewksbury Funeral Home. Visit: www.tewksburyfuneralhome.com