Jean Federici

FLEMINGTON -- Jean Federici died Sunday, May 11, 1997, in Hunterdon Care Center in Raritan Township. She was 89.

She was born in New Bedford, Mass., and lived in the Flemington area for more than 50 years.

She and her husband, Daniel A. Federici , who died in 1995, had several businesses. They owned and operated the former Dixie Luncheonette on Main Street in Flemington, and later had the Dan-Dee Laundromat in Raritan Township.

Mrs. Federici then worked at the Darts Mill Day Care Center in Readington Township.

And she volunteered countless hours at Camp Isabel, a camp in Kingwood Township for handicapped children. All the campers called her ``Granny. ''

Her son, Daniel A. Federici Jr. of Burbank, Calif., has been a musician for more than 30 years. He is the keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

His first solo album, titled ``Flemington,'' was released earlier this year. It features a title track, ``Flemington,'' as well as a song called ``Pennsylvania Avenue,'' in honor of the street he grew up on.

Mr. Federici apparently was always destined to be a performing musician, at least according to his mother.

``My mother really was quite a stage mom,'' he said in an interview earlier this year. ``She really had designs on what I was going to be. She was very savvy. ''

That wasn't limited to the accordion lessons. She booked shows, got him hooked up with musicians a few years older than him and essentially set him down the path he is still following.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Federici is survived by a sister, Florence Nichols of Palm Bay, Fla., and two grandchildren.

A funeral liturgy was held yesterday in St. Magdalen Catholic Church in Flemington. Burial was in the church cemetery, under the direction of Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home in Flemington.

HCD 5/15/97