John R. Collins, 94, entered eternal rest on April 18 after a courageous two week battle with the COVID-19 virus.
He is the husband to the late Virginia Warren Collins.
John was born to Elizabeth Mudry and Raymond Collins on March 31, 1926 on Pleasant St., Ansonia. He was the middle of three children, older brother George Collins and younger sister Marion Fisher predeceased him. John is a graduate of the Assumption School, the Ansonia High School, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 to fight in WWII where he obtained the rank of Sergeant.
In 1950, he married Virginia Warren and they were together until her passing in 2011. He is a lifelong communicant of the Church of the Assumption, and one of the eldest members of the Valley Council 23 Knights of Columbus. During his lifetime he was employed for over 20 years for City Trust Bank of Bridgeport and the Little Red Shoe House in the Valley.
Survivors are his daughter Laurie and her husband Martin Dempsey who is his buddy, the lights of his life grandsons Martin J. Dempsey and his wife Keri of Ansonia, Brenton Dempsey and his wife Allissa of Shelton, his most recent joys of his life are Martin’s two children his great-grandchildren Finnegan John and McKenna Virginia as well as nieces and nephews.
There are no calling hours at this time with a memorial celebration of his life at a later date in the Bennett Funeral Home, 91 N. Cliff St., Ansonia. A memorial mass of Christian
Burial will be celebrated at that time with Full Military Honors. Burial is in Pine Grove Cemetery.
