Margaret Mary “Maggie” Carracino 73, of Santa Barbara, died Thursday, May 9, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital after a long battle with cancer.
Born April 4, 1946, in Los Angeles, to Walter and Elizabeth Howe, she attended elementary and high school in Southern California and later lived in Santa Barbara, where she graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While working for Trans-Monet Engineering, she met and married her husband, Michael Carracino.
Mrs. Carracino lived on the East Coast, first in New Jersey and then in Somerville, MA. She worked at Pricenton University, M.I.T. as a secretary to linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky,, and at Tuffs University. She found her true calling as a union activist with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers at Harvard University, before retiring in 2014. With her sister, she returned to Santa Barbara on New Year’s Day 2015 and took up residence at the Samarkand retirement community.
Mrs. Carracino was an accomplished amateur pianist who enjoyed entertaining friends, family and her neighbors at the Samarkand. She was an avid gardener who worked at the historic “huerta” at Mission Santa Barbara, before her illness curtailed her energy but no her commitment.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and brothers Robert Thomas Howe and James Patrick Howe, and is survived by her sister, Elizabeth Teresa Howe, her brothers, Luke Terence Howe of Houston, TX, and Kevin Hugh Howe of Pacific Grove, as well as many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be be celebrated at Mission Santa Barbara on Thursday May 16th at 10am, followed by burial at Calvary Cemetery in Santa Barbara. In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution in Maggie’s name to the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center in Santa Barbara and Rosie’s Place in Boston.
