In the late 1970s, Midtown Plaza was thriving in downtown Rochester.
Department stores labored over elaborate window displays, the dancing dolls that adorned the Clock of Nations rotated on schedule and shoppers sitting on benches were dwarfed by the well-fertilized mall foliage behind them. Midtown Plaza was the heart of the Rochester community, and the heart of Midtown Plaza was a small, impeccably dressed woman named Nancy DeLancey.
DeLancey, who died Nov. 16, 2025, was known throughout the community as both a kind soul and a shrewd businesswoman. Before becoming Midtown Plaza’s marketing director, DeLancey managed marketing and operations at Perinton Square Mall. Perinton Square Mall was where DeLancey discovered her love for marketing and where she developed ideas that she would later execute on a larger scale at Midtown Plaza.
During this period, DeLancey was navigating life as a working single mother. While other businessmen and businesswomen might have had the luxury of separating their career and home life, DeLancey seamlessly integrated the two. Her work often came home with her, but her sons, Chris and Craig, remember this fondly.
“She taught us how to interact with adults,” Craig DeLancey said. “She would have people at the mall, sometimes famous people, and we would go to dinner with them. She raised us to feel comfortable at every social level, and that was a great gift.”
DeLancey made certain that her children looked the part just as much as they acted it. DeLancey’s daughter-in-law, Dawn, remembers DeLancey stepping in to save the day for her high school senior prom, which she attended with DeLancey’s son, Chris.
“I showed up at his house with a ratty old dress and my sneakers, and she about lost her mind,” Dawn recalled. “She Cinderella’d me and got me all fancied up with real shoes and even a beaded handbag. That’s just the way she was. She was like, ‘No, we’re going to make this right.’”
DeLancey made the world around her a more beautiful place; that was her nature, but she was also smart enough to capitalize on this ability and use the money she raised for the causes close to her heart.
In the 1980s, DeLancey’s close friend and colleague, Neil Parisella, was diagnosed with AIDS. A small group of Parisella’s friends started fundraising by hosting dinners. Nancy jumped at the opportunity to help, and before long, dinners became elaborate events that she hosted at Midtown Plaza. When Midtown Plaza was no longer large enough, she moved the event to the Rochester Convention Center.
Chris DeLancey said of his mother: “She would take on these seemingly impossible tasks and embrace them She wasn’t afraid to be in what a lot of people would consider a very uncomfortable situation.”
After Midtown Plaza faded, DeLancey accepted a position in Corning. Scientists from cities across America were relocating to the small town to pursue job opportunities at Corning Inc.; DeLancey’s job was to make them want to stay by invoking the feeling of a metropolitan area. She leased storefronts to up-and-coming businesses and beautified the neighborhood by decorating the streets for the holidays.
Soon after moving to Corning, DeLancey bought a historic home located amidst the hills of a former vineyard with her true love, Dominic Calabrese. Together, DeLancey and Calabrese renovated the property and operated a successful bed-and-breakfast until their eventual retirement.
Though Nancy DeLancey made quite a name for herself by way of marketing ventures, she will be remembered most for her tenacious personality, coupled with the kindness she exuded. She was a self-assured trailblazer for young businesswomen, an advocate for high-impact social causes, and a steady, elegant force whose influence will be felt long after the storefront lights have gone dark.
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: The woman behind Midtown Plaza’s magic years
Reporting by By Madeline Lathrop, Contributor / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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