Music lovers would walk into Val’s halla Records and say, “I heard this song I love, and it goes like this” — and start humming. Owner Val Camilletti could usually figure out the artist, the label and the pressing — sometimes, instantly.

She died in hospice care early Tuesday at the British Home in Brookfield, about two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Joanne Busiel, her friend since they attended Chicago’s Austin High School. Ms. Camilletti, who lived in Cicero, was 78.