Canton Obituary: Debra Dean-Ciriani, 66

Debra Dean-Ciriani died of cancer on February 12, 2017, at her home in West Hartford. She was 66 years old.

Debra Dean-Ciriani was born on September 27, 1950, in St. Cloud, Minn. She was the daughter of the late Priscilla Baston Dean and Donald Albert Dean, and step-daughter of the late Kathryn Freund Dean. After graduating from St. Cloud Technical High School, she attended Stephens College, a women's college located in Columbia, Missouri, where she received a B.A. in voice. Upon graduation she moved to New York City to pursue an operatic career.

She attended the Juilliard School of Music and procured her first professional contract singing Handel's Messiah at age 24. Of her 16 years in New York City, she spent close to two and a half years in Germany. She sang 22 roles, 6 oratorios and 6 concert recitals. During her last permanence in Germany she met her husband, and two and a half years later they were married in West Hartford, where her husband had found employment. There she went back to study, and obtained her Master in Music at the University of Hartford.

Her daughter was born in 1990, and eight years later the family moved to Solighetto, Italy. Debra acquired double citizenship, learned the language, and started working as a private and public school teacher of English.

After returning to the Hartford area in 2006, Debra started pursuing a master's program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Central Connecticut State University. While attending school, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and received treatment, never interrupting her studies. Upon graduation in 2010, she found immediate employment as a licensed marriage and family therapist at the Bridge Family Center, West Hartford.

In 2013, the cancer metastasized in the bones. At the beginning of 2015 she left the Bridge, and went into private practice with two colleagues, opening an office in Canton. At the end of 2015 the cancer metastasized in the brain.

She is survived by her husband Giovanni M. Ciriani, a daughter Anna P. Ciriani Dean, and two sisters Susan L. Dean and Sandra D. Zwilling.

Calling hours will be held on Friday, February 17, 2017 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. in St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 872 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 10:00 AM. in St. Thomas the Apostle Church. Burial will be private and at the convenience of Debra’s family.

Expressions of sympathy may be made online at www.molloyfuneralhome.com.