Denise O’Brien Garbarino, 78, of John’s Island, SC, passed away peacefully on August 15, 2023. Denise was born on April 2, 1945, to Dennis and Edna (Steinberg) O’Brien in Teaneck, NJ. At the age of four, Denise sadly lost her father Dennis, to a brain aneurysm. A few years later her mother, Edna, remarried to Russell Armstrong, who quickly became known as “Daddy Russ” and who many will tell you was an amazing father to Denise and whom she loved and cherished dearly.

 
Denise graduated from The Dwight-Englewood School in 1963 and was a graduate of Endicott College and Penn State University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967. She was a huge Penn State Football fan and rarely missed a televised game. While at Penn State, Denise met Jack Garbarino and went on to have two children, Denise and John. She dabbled in a career in education after graduation but soon turned her focus to raising her two kids. She was a member of the New Canaan Historical Society, New Canaan and Philadelphia Junior League, Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and a proud military spouse.

  
She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Edna Bonsal, brother in-law Michael Pisani Sr, and her beloved niece Alice Hurdle. She is survived by her husband Jack, daughter Denise Garbarino and her partner Kyle Doyan, her son John Garbarino and his wife Erin, her grandchildren Henry, Ronan, Sophie, Julia and Katie, her aunts Charlotte Morton and Shirley Arviston and godson Michael Morton and wife Gloria, and cousin Tim Bouch and wife Margrette, her nephew Michael Pisani, his wife Nicole, and their two daughters Madelaine and Katherine, nephew David Pisani and wife Jenn, their boys Dylan and Graham, her niece Laura Pisani and husband Joe Junkin, their children Ryan and Sabrina, her grandnephew Ollie Hurdle, her niece Brooke Garbarino-Bonovitch, her children Zach and Molly, her nephew Barry Garbarino and his partner Louis George, her nephew Paul Siegel, his children Michael and Katherine, her niece Pam Applebee and husband Russ, children Colin and Claire, niece Julie Coachys and husband Michael, children Jack and Emily, and her brother-in-law Barry Garbarino and wife Gwen and sisters-in-laws Judy Siegel and Joyce Garbarino. She loved each and every member of her family deeply. She has a long list of friends she loved very much and they know who they are, from grammar school, the military, Buck Hill Falls, PA and most recently Folly-Beach/Charleston/John’s Island, SC.

Services will be held at St. Peter the Apostle on Wilmington Island, Savannah on Monday, August 21, 2023 at 9:30am, followed by a military service and burial at the Beaufort National Cemetery, in SC, at noon. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made out to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Donate.