Dear Readers,

November 2nd is All Souls Day. The early Christians, like their pagan ancestor remembered their dead on certain days of the year. The present date of our yearly commemoration of the dead was established in the tenth century. Here are a few, Heavenly Bound Italian American Souls:
In January 2006, among the departed were Al Maffei, a second generation, San Francisco native, born and raised in North Beach.

Al Maffei served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, worked for Abbott Laboratories for 35 years, was an avid fan of the S.F. Giants and 49er’s and was a past president of UNICO International.

Vita Sabella, born in Palermo, Capital City of the Italian island of Sicily, was the youngest child of 13 children. Beloved wife of the late Angelo Sabella, she was the Matriarch of Sabella’s Restaurant in Marin County, California and passed peacefully away, at age 93 at her home in San Francisco.

Maestro Mario Bruno, a talented and prolific composer was born in Liuzzi, province of Cosenza (Calabria) and at age 14 migrated with his parents to Philadelphia. He served in the U.S. Army and upon his discharge, continued his musical education in the Academy of Music and was an accomplished pianist and composer.

In January, we also learned of the December 26, 2005 passing of Vincent Schiavelli longtime character actor, celebrity television chef, food writer and author of “Bruculinu, America” a remembrance of Sicilian American Brooklyn, told in stories and recipes and of the December 20, 2005 passing of Argentina Brunetti, actress, and longtime L’Italo-Americano columnist, at 98, in Rome, Italy. As an actress she had played in Frank Capra’s now classic 1946, Christmas Film “It’s a Wonderful Life” and she portrayed Dean Martin’s mother in the 1953 comedy “The Caddy”, in which Martin’s sang “That’s Amore” to her and introduced the song to the world.

Gene Benedetti, founder of Clover Stornetta Farms, made famous by his creative Bovine Billboards starring Moona Lisa and Vincent Van-Clo died on Friday, the 13th in January. Mr.Benedetti, whose company is known far and wide for its mascot Clo and the Funny Cow Pun billboards was 86.

Born in Sonoma in 1919, he was the son of Italian immigrant farmers and winemakers who never spoke English. Short and compact, his family started calling him "Shorty," and the nickname stuck. When he was a child, the family moved to Cotati, where he lived the rest of his life, eventually buying a portion of his parent's property and building a big ranch house.

He graduated from Petaluma High School in 1938 and attended Santa Rosa Junior College, where he played football and attracted the attention of recruiters at the University of San Francisco.

He made up for his short stature with grit and strength, playing quarterback and center for the powerhouse USF teams of the early 1940s, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Dante, who had been a star tackle in the late 1930s.

After Pearl Harbor, he tried to join the Marines with his brother, but a back injury kept him out. He graduated from USF in 1942 and joined the Navy as a lieutenant and served as the skipper of a Landing Craft Tank, or LCT, dropping soldiers and equipment off on the beaches during invasions in North Africa, Italy and Normandy. Mr. Benedetti was devastated when his brother Dante was shot down flying as a Marine pilot at Guadalcanal.

Mr.Benedetti almost didn't make it out of the war, suffering shrapnel wounds in Anzio. He was in the first wave attacking Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion. Under a hail of gunfire, he manually lowered the ramp after it was damaged by mortar fire, suffering more shrapnel wounds and severely hurting his back.

Mr. Benedetti was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds and the Silver Star, one of the nation's highest medals for valor in combat.
"He always said that Normandy was the most difficult because, out of 170 soldiers, not one of his boys made it to the beach."

One of his close friends who was killed was Carmen "Cuz" Pirro, who had told Mr. Benedetti to look up his wife if he didn't make it. Mr. Benedetti found Evelyn Pirro after the war and fell in love. They married, and she died in March 2004 after 59 years of marriage. He got a master's degree in history from Stanford, coached football at Santa Rosa Junior College and started a semi-pro team called the Petaluma Leghorns, whose mascot was Leviticus, the chicken.

Mr. Benedetti started working in the dairy business as a salesman for Petaluma Cooperative Creamery, which he eventually bought in 1977 and turned into Clover Stornetta Farms Inc. His sons Dante and Herm, and numerous relative still work there.

The idea for Clo the Cow was hatched by Mr. Benedetti and Levinger, a friend who owned an ad agency. Billboards with “Support Your Local Cow. Buy Clover Milk" could be seen all over the place. More recent billboards, include “Moona Lisa” with a picture of a cow looking like the Mona Lisa and Vincent Van-Clo, a drawing of a cow’s face on a painter’s body with a clipped ear.

Old school until the end, he called all the men he knew Buck and all the women Doll and would lead everybody in singing “God Bless America” at family dinners.

...

From Reader Madeleine Charolla, I belatedly learned of the passing of Charles Mandina, Padre Pio’s “American Secretary” in Los Angeles.

Everyone who knew Charlie said that he was the model humility and a tireless worker for the Lord via his establishment of Padre Pio prayer groups.
Charles Madina was born June 12, 1928, in Akron, Ohio, one of eight children. He grew up poor, never went to college, married directly after high school and then joined the Navy during World War II. Though he was never deployed abroad, he did receive a “Dear John” letter while serving on the West Coast. He moved to California and lived out his days as a single man.

He had this feeling that he would meet a holy man on a mountain who would give him direction in his life, then he met Padre Pio.
Mandina worked as a salesman for an office supply company, but spent his free time spreading devotion to Padre Pio and to the sacraments and prayers St. Pio advocated: Mass, confession and the rosary.

Those reflecting on his life said that one simple person can bring thousands of people closer to God. “He went to the school of Padre Pio and gratuaded with honors”, said Migneli Villanueva, who started a prayer group two years ago in Monterrey, Mexico, with Mandina’s help.

His education in that school began in 1961 when he went to San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, and met Padre Pio for the first time. He was perhaps the single most instrumental person in promoting the cause of Padre Pio and his spirituality in United States and Mexico.

Mandina eventually became Padre Pio English’s translator and correspondence secretary. After six months, he received a mission from the Capuchin Friar: return to the United States and start prayer groups.

The stigmatist, miracle worker and reader of souls envisioned the groups “as a response to Pope Pius XII’s call for increased prayer”, Mandina said in 2002.
It was an uphill battle. Few outside Italy knew Padre Pio in 1960’s. But Mandina began one of the first prayer groups in the United States, Los Angeles.

Mandina’s guidance helped the group swell to more than 700 members. From there Mandina would go on to help found more than 40 groups in the United States, Mexico and Philippines.

His friend Dr. Vinny Staunton, still attends a group Mandina helped start in Long Beach, California.
The groups would meet monthly for Mass, rosary, Benediction, and a talk on the spirituality of the man born Francesco Forgione in 1887.

Mandina spent the rest of his 76 years promoting Padre Pio’s cause, traveling back and forth to San Giovanni regularly. When the Capuchin friar celebrated his last Mass in 1968 and when he was canonized in 2002, Mandina was there. He was one of the few Americans who had a close, personal relationship with Padre Pio.

Capuchin Father Peter Banks, first met Mandina more than 30 years ago, and buried him from his Watts parish of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, in Los Angeles.
According to Banks, Mandina recently made sure that all 900 students in the parish’s Saturday catechism class received a rosay.

...

“Grazie” to Joseph Argento of New York, a longtime L’Italo-Americano subscriber I learned about the passing of Luigi Rossi, of E.Rossi Co., now at 193-Grand St. in New York City. I have been ordering merchandise like aprons, books, baby shirts, hats, t-shirts, map towels, music and Italian kitchen ware from E.Rossi Co. for over 25 years and often talked with Luigi on the telephone (212) 226-9254 when his son Ernie was not available.

E.Rossi Co. has been in business for over a century and is located next door to Ferrara’s Café and Confections in the heart of Little Italy. Mr. Rossi’s passing was noted in the New York Times, September 17, 2006, Sunday Edition with a half-page spread, a photo and story by New York Times correspondent Jake Mooney.
Musical Readers, who lived in New York City before moving to California, will remember walking or taking the subway to the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets to buy sheet music and records for the Victrola at E.Rossi Company: “At the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets workers from the stalwart restaurants and shops of Little Italy were busy setting up tents for the 79th annual Feast of San Gennaro.

The festival represents the 11 days of the year when the encroachments of Chinatown and yuppiedom fade into the background and the patron saint of Naples can feel at home again.

This year, though, San Gennaro will have to do without one neighborhood fixture. Luigi Rossi, who died eight days ago at the age of 95.

Luigi spent his entire life at E. Rossi & Company, the store his father founded a century ago, selling Neapolitan records, sheet music, figurines of saints, and Italian miscellany of all kinds. He lived on Grand Street, across the street from his shop, until the end and minded the store for almost as long.

"You think of Little Italy, you think of Louie Rossi sitting there on his chair," Robert Alleva, owner of the 114-year-old Alleva cheese store across the street, said from behind a glass case displaying prosciutto, sopressata and artichoke hearts.

"There'd be like a gazillion things every where, and you would ask him for something from 1959. And he'd move a couple of boxes and pull it out."
The Neapolitan art songs, which had a heyday with the arrival of the wave of Italian immigrants to New York in the early 20th century, often draw on sentimental themes like love and nostalgia.

Joseph Sciorra, assistant director of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College, recalled Mr. Rossi's comprehensive knowledge of the store's vast library of rare sheet music, some of which the Rossi’s published.

What didn't sell, Mr. Sciorra said, often found its way into storage. "Rossi's, in its last 20 years, 30 years, had really become this kind of repository and archive for Italian-American popular culture," he said.

"Its collection is unprecedented." Even after high rents forced the store to move from its corner location at 191 Grand Street into a smaller space on the block, Mr. Rossi presided from a perch just inside the front door.

Mr. Rossi's death came three years after that of his wife of 59 years, Italia.
Whenever you are visiting New York, you can jump start your Christmas Shopping by visiting E.Rossi Company on Grand Street.

 

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