Autilia Di Nunzio used to say she came from a remote Italian village of 400 people – “if you counted the chickens.” She survived wartime danger and deprivation and made a new life in America, where some of her proudest days included becoming a citizen and watching her daughters graduate college.

Mrs. Di Nunzio, 90, died Thursday of complications from lung cancer at the Northwest Side home that she made fragrant with her pasta dishes and lively with the beautiful voices on her opera records. She and her brothers, Adolfo and Antonio, grew up the children of Giuseppe and Maria Melone in the town of Scontrone in the central province of L’Aquila in Italy’s Abruzzo region.