Nita Michelini White, a longtime resident of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, died on June 7th, 2025 at the age of 95 at Heron House in Cumberland, Maine. Nita was born in Reading, Massachusetts on July 22,1929 to Ralph Michelini and Dorothy Knox. Her father was a second generation Italian-American, whom she described as gregarious and who loved to laugh, traits Nita inherited.
She grew up through the Great Depression and World War II, the events of which would greatly shape her attitudes toward life and the way in which she raised her family. Although she rarely talked about these formative years, she took great joy in the simpler pleasures of life. As a child, she reveled in hauling her skates down to the local ponds and spent hours gliding across the frozen ice. She loved spending Sunday afternoons riding in the rumble seat of her aunt’s Model A, playing the piano, cheerleading or teaching herself to play tennis. As a teenager, she spent her summers at the beach at Briar Neck in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and she became a devoted Red Sox fan at an early age, often reminiscing about seeing Ted Williams play at Fenway Park when she and a friend played hooky from school.
Nita graduated from Reading High School in 1947 and Colby Junior College in New London, NH in 1949. She then attended the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston and became a legal secretary at the law firm of Bingham, Dana and Gould, where she met her beloved husband, James M. White, Jr., a partner at the firm. Nita and Jim were married in 1956 and moved to Hamilton, Massachusetts and then to Manchester-by-the-Sea in 1965, where they raised their three children.
Nita was an avid tennis player and played until the age of 88, mostly on grass courts. She was a talented candlepin bowler, winning the annual trophy almost every year in the Miles River Bowling League. Nita could beat almost everyone at the basketball game “PIG” in her driveway. She loved watching her children play sports, and she co-owned a sporting goods consignment shop “Trade Wins” in Beverly Farms, MA in the mid 1970s.
Nita enjoyed playing bridge, hooking rugs, frequenting the Boston Symphony and Huntington Theater, gardening, feeding the birds, and reading. She also volunteered time to The Fragment Society. She was a past member of the Essex County Club, Prides Beach Association, Singing Beach Club, and the Hillsborough Club
Nita was known to everyone as a wonderful hostess, with an amazing gift of laughter and an easy ability of making everyone feel welcome in her home. She delighted in having her friends and her children’s friends to her home for dinners, raucous pool parties or just sitting at the kitchen table catching up. Nita deeply valued friendship, generosity, and family, and she cherished her role as a grandmother. Affectionately known as “Nini”, she was actively involved in her grandchildren’s lives.
We offer our deepest thanks to her caregivers who enabled her to live independently in her home until she was 95 years old, and to the dedicated staff at Heron House and Hospice who lovingly cared for her at the end of her life.
Nita was predeceased by her husband, Jim. She is survived by her son, Jamie White of Sugar Hill, NH, daughters, Sarah Sherwood (Peter Sherwood) of Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Rebecca Dilworth (John O’Meara) of Falmouth Maine, her grandchildren, Willy, Harry and Polly Merck, Caroline, Lucy and Nick Dilworth, and Matt and Charlotte White as well as six great grandchildren
In lieu of flowers, Nita would be most pleased if donations or remembrances could be made to The Friends of Manchester Trees as she valued so much the beautiful landscapes of Manchester-by-the-Sea.
A Memorial Service will be held at a later date.
