Mark Corrado to step up as next Columbian Club prez
Retired CFO Mark M. Corrado will ascend to the presidency of the Columbian Club of Chicago at a black-tie optional installation dinner on Jan. 18 at the Medinah Country Club. For reservations, call Michael Russotto at 630-222-2686. Corrado has been a member of the Columbian Club since 2006, but he was introduced to the organization more than 40 yea...
Amendola D’Anca earns leadership award
The In Her Shoes Foundation presented public health nutritionist Carl Amendola D’Anca with its 2019 Women Who Change the World Leadership Award. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and the Chicago Medical School, D’Anca has dedicated herself to “raising awareness, inspiring change and improving the health of the nation” in response to the gro...
State OSDIA adds new lodge in Wisconsin
The Illinois/Wisconsin Grand Lodge of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America welcomed a new lodge to the family. Lodge Amicizia #2999 of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was chartered on Nov. 2 at Casa Capri in Kenosha. On hand for the ceremony were Lodge President Joseph Cardinali, National 4th Vice President Richard R. Della Croce, Grand Lodge Presi...
Italian fest to host Christmas Gala
It may only be December, but the Undo's Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival Committee is already preparing for the 2020 event. They are holding a Christmas Gala fundraiser for the festival at Undo's West this weekend. It will feature an Italian dinner, cookie table, dancing, entertainment by Ray Massa's EuroRhythms, and an Italian auction....
National coalition reaches out to Chicago-area groups
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations brought its message of unity to Chicago recently. Conference Chair Dr. Aileen Sirey, and Vice Chair Basil Russo met with representatives of 20 member organizations of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. The meeting was hosted by JCCIA President Sergio Giangrande. The m...
Il Mercurio Volante graces museum
The Italian Renaissance came to Terre Haute late in the nineteenth century in the form a statue of Mercury mounted on top of the McKeen Bank building at the corner of Sixth and Wabash. After sitting on the bank for more than eighty years, Mercury was moved to the Vigo County Historical Society Museum in the late 1950s. Today it graces the third flo...
Crown Point woman with 80-year voting record dies on Thanksgiving at 105
Crown Point’s Erma Mucci, who first registered to vote 82 years ago and voted in every election since, died on Thanksgiving. She was 105. “That was always instilled in us, that our voice counted and our voice mattered,” said Mucci’s daughter, Susan Garretson. “My mother was a modern woman before women were modern.” Mucci was recognized by the...
Lou Ragusi, whose Capt’n Nemo’s submarine sandwich shops fed generations, has died at 88
In 1971, Lou Ragusi opened Capt’n Nemo’s, a restaurant that promised customers “A Whale of a Sub.” The Army veteran used to joke about how he came up with his restaurant’s name. “I couldn’t get my rank in the service,” he’d say. “So I bought it.” Since then, Capt’n Nemo’s has served hundreds of thousands of sandwiches at the original Rogers Park lo...
Louis G. Piancone, 90, of Gladstone, founded Italian food company, philanthropist
Louis G. Piancone, 90, died on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019, at his home in Gladstone. He was born in Corato, Bari, Italy, on Jan. 1, 1929, immigrated to the United States in 1951, and became a U.S. citizen in 1957. In 1955, he achieved his personal objective of owning and succeeding in his own business by opening a delicatessen in Bra...
Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse Pleases Plenty of Palates
True steak houses, not those with minor menu mention, have again hit the taste buds of many restaurant patrons … Not that steak sales are down, but dining spots that concentrate on them seem to give the meat added attention. Like two that opened in this area and are making their presence known … Johnny’s Italian Steakhouses, Farmington Hills (Hamil...
Nissoli (FI) a Chicago: una full immersion con la comunità per i festeggiamenti in onore di Santa Fara
“È bello ritrovarsi tra i siciliani in America e rivivere le tradizioni che ho vissuto in parte anche da piccola! Così è stato sabato scorso, a Chicago, per il 38esimo Anniversario della Festa in onore di Santa Fara organizzata dalla Società Santa Fara di Cinisi (Chicago), presieduta da Carlo Vaniglia, che ringrazio per l’invito e per il suo costan...
Pat Tiberi makes magic for Ohio at the intersection of business and politics
Pat Tiberi was voted by peer CEOs as CEO of the Year in the small nonprofit category for 2019. Pat Tiberi’s story couldn’t be much more American. The son of a steelworker, he grew up in an Italian immigrant family that took its Catholicism seriously. His first job was at McDonald’s when he was 16. He loved playing the trumpet and sports while he wa...