Dear Readers,
In June, the month we celebrate Brides, Birthdays and Father’s Day (June 15th) I am delighted to spotlight Elisabetta Selvaggi Stiglianese, who came to America as the young Bride of my father’s best friend Pasquale Stiglianese and will be celebrating her 100th birthday on June 10, 2008…“Brava Bettina!”
My mother Caterina and Bettina “came over on the same boat” and were closer than “due sorelle” best friends. My father Vincenzo and Pasquale, best friends and school chums in Italy, rented apartments a couple of blocks away from each other in New York. My father’s apartment was at 260 Brook Avenue and Pasquale rented 202 Brown’s Place near P.S. 9 in the Bronx.
The men furnished their apartments and awaited the brides they had married in Italy and after red tape and immigration quota waits had finally received “their papers” and were on their way to the U.S.A. According to Bettina’s daughter Mary, Bettina sailed to America on January 1931, aboard the Saturnia.
Her ship docked at a pier in Manhattan because her husband Pasquale, after working in the U.S. for many years, had provided her with a first class voyage ticket and therefore did not come to America via Ellis Island. In the fall of 1931 Bettina and Pasquale Stiglianese became the happy parents of a beautiful baby daughter, Mary and in the fall of 1932 became the proud parents of a son, Nicky (Nicola).
All during my early childhood years in New York, Mary and Nick were my best friends, so it is with great joy that I shine the spotlight on my favorite centenarian in “tutto il mondo”, Elisabetta Selvaggi Stiglianese. Bettina was born June 10, 1908 in Pomarico, Italy, province of Matera. She was one of the few young girls, born in a small agricultural hill town, at the turn of the century, not the daughter of landed gentry (her father was a shoemaker) who went to school.
Although it was only third grade, they learned the basics well and even today Bettina can read and write in Italian and speak correct Italian, as well as the Pomarico and Matarese dialects of her area. On August 30, 1930 she married Pasquale Stiglianese in Pomarico, Italy. He had been in America and was employed by the U.S. Post Office, before he went to Italy to marry Elisabetta. Elisabetta sailed to America in January 1931. When she and her husband Pasquale were settled, she worked at home pinning handkerchiefs on paper ready for boxing and took care of the family.
When her two young children were in school full time she went to work out of the house. She became an excellent seamstress and worked her way up to working for Lord & Taylor and Saks 5th Avenue in the 1960’s. Bettina, now grandma Betty, has 2 children, 10 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren; she is widowed and currently lives in Monroe, New Jersey with her daughter Mary Stiglianese Dickey.
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Words of wisdom from Pasquale Stiglianese: “When the cups and saucers all match, there are candles on the table and the table decor is lovely, the food isn’t…”
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1908 was a year filled with great moments:
• L’Italo-Americano Newspaper was founded in 1908 in Los Angeles, California by Florentine born Gabriello Spini and was ably assisted since 1914 by his nephew Cleto Baroni, who assumed responsibility from 1933 to 1971.
• Elisabetta Selvaggi (Stiglianese) was born in Pomarico, Matera on June 10, 1908. She married a “paesano” and U.S. postal employee Pasquale Stiglianese in 1930, sailed to New York and has 2 children, 10 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
• Model L-T, Henry Ford’s first “horseless carriage” a motorcar for the multitude is produced in Detroit. • Teddy Roosevelt was president of our United States, but in November 1908 William Howard Taft was elected our 27th president.
• The FBI was formed to fight crime in 1908, but its operations were on a limited scale, until J. Edgar Hoover was made director in 1924.
• The “Flying Machine” was patented by the Wright Bros. in May 1908.
• Messina, Sicily, was devastated by the most violent earthquake ever recorded in Europe on December 28, 1908.
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