Obituary of Elaine A. Marotta

NORWALK, CONN Elaine Marotta, the Bronx born, writer and editor who brought style, wit and attention to detail, to a wide range of Newsstand and bespoke magazines, died on Tuesday, August 27th, at her home in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was 68. Ms. Marotta was Managing Editor, Executive Editor and Editor-in-Chief, during her career and oversaw the publication of many well-known titles, for Condé Nast, Hachette-Fillipachi and Times Mirror, Lamaze, iVillage, Panache and CW Publications. Not for her the glitz and glamor of the red carpet, her work was long nights of edits, rewrites, layouts and deadlines. She brought life back into dry articles, penned crisp cover lines and turned newsstand browsers into purchasers. The youngest child of Rose, (née Mastrototaro) fom Worcester, Mass and Dino Marotta (from Bisceglie, Puglia, Italy). Elaine was born on Valentine's eve, February 1956. A graduate of Fordham University and Mount St Ursula's Academy, she was a true, born and bred, New Yorker, forged in The Bronx. She was accepted to Fordham University at Rose Hill in 1974, where she graduated with a BA in English with Communications and a minor in French and Philosophy. She started her career, as associate editor, at The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. magazine, IEEE, in December 1980. Condé Nast hired her into the editorial department of Mademoiselle magazine, under Amy Levin, in 1982. She quickly rose to be Managing Editor, where long nights and longer days became the reality of publishing, as she wrangled late submissions to meet short deadlines and print schedules. Condé Nast was well known for shake ups at the top of the masthead, yet, Elaine was a constant throughout the changes and continued for 10 years. But it was a start-up, political publication, founded by John F. Kennedy Junior that tempted her away from Condé Nast. This was the birth of George. Exciting, flashy, incisive, Elaine brought her glossy newsstand style and glamor to the staid and frumpy world of political commentary. After 12 months and too many late nights she needed a break and left for a long awaited and much needed vacation, a few weeks of respite from New York's cacophony of taxi horns and construction dust to the peace and calm of the Pacific paradise Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. On her first morning, at a presentation for island activities, she talked with a brash Cockney transplant from San Francisco. She had met "Her Robbie". A month later she returned to Manhattan and started a long-distance relationship that spanned the globe. She was engaged to be married at Christiansted, St. Croix, USVI, February 15th 1999. Elaine married Robert Murphy, a computer nerd from Silicon Valley, at St. Ignatius Loyola Church, on Park Avenue, in January 2000. She worked for a time at Skiing Trade News in New York and later as Executive Editor at Lamaze Publications, in Darien, CT. She moved to her 'Littlehouse' in Silvermine; where the towns of New Canaan, Norwalk, and Wilton meet by the Perry Avenue bridge across the Silvermine River. It is now that she saw the decline of printed newsstand magazines. iVillage, a dot com startup, acquired Lamaze publications. NBCUniviersal acquired iVillage and closed the printed magazines. Technology improvements brought content to tablets and then phones. Print advertising revenue dropped, paper mills went out of business, the heyday of the glossy newsstand publication was in retreat. Elaine moved to custom publications. Glimpses into the lifestyles of the rich and fabulous, Panache, was produced in Westchester, NY. New Canaan Matters, distributed to commuters at New Canaan Rail-Road station. A beauty supplement for CVS stores. She returned to Manhattan with CW Publications as Editor-in-Chief. Here she produced custom magazines for corporations, medical associations and event organizers, distributing their health guides to doctors' offices, high value property reviews in airline lounges and by mail to various professional association members. You and Your Family, Your Health Matters. Golf supplements for the latest tournament, Gary Player's guide to the open. BET Awards annual supplement. Elaine is survived by her Robbie, her stepdaughter, Kalista Murphy and her brother, Dean Marotta. The funeral is 18th September at St Aloysius Church New Canaan. Interment will be held following the Mass at Willowbrook Cemetery, 395 Main Street, Westport, Conn with Hoyt Funeral Home of New Canaan, directing the arrangements.