Services Planned for ‘Fullerton Greeter’

Marie Sacino’s “public” will get a chance to wave goodbye for the last time during two memorial services this week for the beloved woman known as the “Fullerton Greeter.”

Eastside Christian Church, 2505 Yorba Linda Blvd., will have its farewell at 7 p.m. Wednesday; the Acacia Villa retirement home, 1620 E. Chapman Ave., Sacino’s residence for the past two years, will have a service at 10 a.m. Friday.

Sacino, 76, died of a heart attack Sunday.

She was known to thousands for sitting in her wheelchair in front of the retirement home on Chapman Avenue, waving and smiling at passing motorists, who she called “my public.”

Hundreds of mourners--friends, family and strangers--have been leaving floral bouquets, wreaths, cards, balloons and stuffed animals at the street corner.

“[The home] is where she slept and ate, but out there is where she lived,” said Wanda Reynolds, assistant manager of Acacia Villa. “Her biggest enjoyment was sitting out there and waving to her public. She loved it when children waved back and drivers honked.”

And they loved her too.

Craig Gross, 22, remembers the first day he saw Sacino. He was on his way to class. A few days later, he decided to stop and meet the woman, who would become a good friend.

On Monday, Gross wrote a letter to Sacino: “As I got to know you, I stopped taking a lot of things for granted. . . . Marie, I love you and how I wish I could tell you just one more time. You will be missed, not only by me, but by the thousands of people who saw you each and every day on Chapman Avenue.”