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Karen Andreone spent 33 years at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Syosset, but her impact on the all-girls Catholic high school will be felt for much longer than that. The lifelong Hicksville resident took her vast knowledge and love of sports and transformed the athletic department into a multi-layered winner.
Along the way, she touched the lives of countless students, regardless of their athletic prowess. She was known as "The Legend," and for good reason. Athlete or not, everyone knew "Miss A."
"I do not have a memory of doing something at Mercy without her in it," said Julie Spencer, 43, of Pennsylvania, who attended OLMA in the mid-1990s and played volleyball and softball for Andreone. "Everything I did and saw success in, she was right there with me."
Andreone, who was the athletic director, a physical education teacher, and coached volleyball, badminton and softball at OLMA, died Aug. 30 at Huntington Hills Center for Health and Rehabilitation in Melville after a battle with breast cancer, said longtime friend Ava Favara. She was 71.
"She was a person who was bigger than life and had a heart of gold," said Favara, 76, of Hicksville. "But she was a very humble person. She never looked for anything or any attention brought to herself. It was all about the students and about the school."
As athletic director, Andreone more...