Carole Cardinale dies at 85

Carole Cardinale, a former Demarest council president and the widow of former State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), died this morning.  She was 85.

Cardinale spent thirteen years on the Demarest Borough Council.  She was appointed to the council in January 1995 to replace Joseph Cerrone, who had been elected mayor.  She was elected in 1995 and re-elected in 1998, 2001 and 2004. In 2007, she lost her bid for a sixth term to Melinda Iannuzzi, now the mayor of Demarest, by 130 votes.

She served as chair of the Railroad Station Reconstruction Committee and as a police commissioner.  After leaving the council, Cardinale spent several years on the Demarest Planning Board.

Before entering local politics, Cardinale owned a bridal shop and managed a shopping center in Fort Lee.  She served as a trustee of the John Harms Theater.

Cardinale worked on the campaigns of her late husband, starting with his election to the Demarest school board in 1967, and later for mayor, assemblyman and state senator. He was elected to the State Senate in 1981 and served there until his death in February, 2021.

Gerald Cardinale once said that his wife was the “brains behind my political career.”

She is survived by her five children — Marisa and her partner, Linda,  Christine, Kara, Gary and his wife, Kristy, and Nicole — and her four grandchildren: Sebastian, Allegra, Tamara, and Chloe.