Louise Coles Driscoll passed away at home with her family at her side on Wednesday July 14, 2021. Louise was born in Long Branch on March 18, 1932 to Rocco and Christina Acerra Coles. She graduated from Long Branch High School in 1949. After spending some time working for her mother at the NancyLu dress shop in Long Branch, she went to work at Fort Monmouth, where she spent two stints, retiring after 20 years in 1988. Her primary passion, outside of her family, throughout her life was singing and acting. She took classical singing lessons from Hermine Hudon for many years, pre-marriage she performed in a variety of USO shows at Fort Monmouth, post-marriage she acted in many Brookdale dramatic and comedic shows in the 1970s, sang with the Monmouth Civic Chorus in the 1980s as well as with choruses with both the Holy Trinity Catholic church in Long Branch and the Tower Hill Presbyterian church in Red Bank. At Fort Monmouth in 1962 she met Patrick Driscoll over a lunch time bridge game, which led to marriage in June of 1963. Over the 58 years of their marriage, they lived in Long Branch twice, Ocean Township three times, Freehold once and eventually at Seabrook in Tinton Falls, where they moved in 2009. While at Seabrook, Louise performed as a lead performer in a number of Seabrook Performers shows, including Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma and a number of variety shows. She also sang with two different choruses, one as a soloist, while at Seabrook. Active in other ways, she served as an officer in both the Long Branch Historical Society and a local Italian-American Club, and also served as a paid election official, primarily in Little Silver, for many years. During their marriage, both with their children and later by themselves, Louise and Pat travelled extensively – to Michigan at least annually to visit Pat’s family, at timeshares usually at warm places in the winter, to Elderhostels, on both river and ocean cruises, and a variety of other destinations. Prior to Seabrook, Louise was a loyal communicant of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Long Branch. Throughout her life, Louise was fiercely loyal to her family, her friends, her religion, the city of Long Branch, the state of New Jersey, her Italian heritage and the Democratic party.

She was predeceased by her sister, Nancy Coles, in 1977, her father in 1979, her mother in 1987, her brother-in-law Edward Eisch in 2017 and her sister-in-law, Kathleen Eisch in 2019. She is survived by her husband Patrick , son David Driscoll and his partner Gertrude Aguinaldo, daughter Clare Shin, daughter Nancy Amato, grandchildren Anthony Amato, Joseph Amato, Daniel Shin, Christina Shin and Brandon Shin, along with sister-in-law, Dorothy Douglas and brother-in-law Richard Douglas, as well as a number of loved nieces and nephews and many friends. The family would like to thank the personnel of Swan Hospice as well as Caren Ondieki of Personal Home Care of NJ for the professional and compassionate care they performed with Louise in the last few weeks of her life.
Visiting will be on Sunday, July 18, 2021 from 2-5 PM at Fiore Funeral Home, 236 Monmouth Road in Ocean Township with a funeral the following day at the funeral home ay 10:00 AM following by burial at Woodbine Cemetery in Oceanport. In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations to the Resident Care Fund at Seabrook Village, 3000 Essex Road, Tinton Falls, NJ 07753 in care of Anne Marie Matthews.