Stella Matt

Stella V. (LoPresti) Matt, 87, of Pawling, N.Y., and more recently of Newburyport, Mass., passed away Jan. 22, 2008, at Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport.

She was the wife of the late Anton "Toni" Matt.

Stella was born in Arlington, Mass., on May 8, 1920, the daughter of the late Frank and Mary (Guarente) LoPresti and was a graduate of Arlington High School 1939. She was a bank teller at the Former Boston Five Cents Savings Bank in Arlington.

She was a Catholic Daughter, C.C.D. teacher, lector and parish member at St. John's Catholic Church in Pawling, N.Y., where she resided for many years before coming to Newburyport.

Stella's husband of 45 years was Toni Matt, an Austrian born Hall of Fame ski racer who is famous for schussing the headwall at Tuckerman Ravine during the 1939 Inferno Race on New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

Toni and Stella crossed the country while working with the growing post-World War II ski industry. After starting their family at the Big Mountain in Whitefish, the Matts came east to Pawling, N.Y., where Stella lived until 2004.

She is survived by five children, Marydeth Matt, of Everett, Mass., Carol Zubiel and husband Paul, of Beverly, Mass., Richard Matt and wife Elaine, and Tracy Matt, of Naugatuck, Conn., and Francee Quinlan and husband Michael, of Newbury; a sister, Gloria Ringland, of Cambridge, Mass.; and eight grandchildren.

A funeral mass was held Jan. 24, 2008, at Immaculate Conception Church, Newburyport. Burial followed at St. John's Cemetery in Pawling, N.Y.