Willow Glen Resident

Community

Joseph DiSalvo Sr. was a butcher by trade and relished his garden

By Alicia Upano

There was no shortage of family members in Joseph Dennis DiSalvo Sr.'s life. He grew up in the Goosetown neighborhood among six sisters and enjoyed raising his two sons, spoiling his three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

DiSalvo, 84, died of congestive heart failure and respiratory problems on March 7. He had lived in Willow Glen since 1951, where cherry orchards surrounded the home he built.

In fact, his father, Philip, was picking cherries on the day he was born. It was a summer day, June 1, 1922, and DiSalvo was the fourth child of the Albanian-Sicilian couple.

The large family didn't have much money, and the Great Depression didn't help. DiSalvo learned to speak English in school and got around San Jose by walking, as there was no family car, according to his niece, Marlene Orlando.

"Our house was always full, and Mom and Dad always provided for us. We didn't have a lot, but we were always happy," said Pauline Lanfri, DiSalvo's sister.

Lanfri remembers her brother as a fun-loving child who was quick to make friends with neighbors and would teasingly steal his sisters' food at the dinner table.

DiSalvo began pitching into the family coffers at age 12, when he was hired at Oteri's Grocery Store on Virginia Street. He worked two hours a day during school days and eight hours on Saturday for $1.50 per week. Oteri's closed in 1940, the year DiSalvo graduated from San Jose High School.

Soon after, DiSalvo met his future wife, Ann, as she was fixing her bicycle in her Glen Avenue driveway. The couple dated before DiSalvo was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. They married when he returned to California on leave in 1943, and Ann traveled back to DiSalvo's base in Charleston, S.C., where he was an aviation mechanic. He trained soldiers on the B-24 and B-26 bombers.

After the war, the couple returned to San Jose and DiSalvo began working in the grocery trade again. He became a butcher's apprentice for Safeway, and worked at multiple stores before his retirement in 1984.

"He always called himself a meat cutter," his older son, Dennis, said. "He looked at it as a work of art."

Family members frequently tapped his expertise, asking which cuts of meats were best and where they could find the best sales. Lanfri said she will miss his weekly calls that began, "Get your paper and pencil out, I'm going to give you the buys of the week."

DiSalvo loved food, and spent hours tending to his garden. He grew a number of herbs, such as basil for Lanfri's pesto, but his prize crop was his tomatoes, Dennis said.

"The garden was his life. He always bragged about his tomatoes," his son said.

He also loved to cook, which he learned from his father, and frequently barbecued for the family on weekends.

As a father, DiSalvo was easygoing, soft-spoken and dedicated, Dennis said. He chuckles at a memory of his father chasing him down the middle of Meridian Avenue after Dennis got into a speck of trouble.

Lanfri remembers her brother as a confidante.

"My brother was always really kind of special to me. We had a closeness. I could talk to him and tell him how I felt," she said. "He really was the greatest brother we could've ever had, to all of us."

DiSalvo's health began to deteriorate on Feb. 24, and he spent time at Willow Glen Convalescent Hospital near his home. On March 7, an ambulance brought him to Good Samaritan Hospital, and Dennis spent most of the day talking with his father. Toward the evening, DiSalvo insisted his son go home and have dinner with his family. DiSalvo died before his son's return.

"He didn't want me to see him die," Dennis said.

DiSalvo is survived by his wife, Ann, his children Dennis and Joseph Jr., his grandchildren Gina, Adam and Nicholas, great-grandchildren Luca and Logan DiSalvo, and sisters Rose Orlando, Lanfri, Marie Moriconi and Dorothy Massaro.

Services have been held. Donations may be sent in DiSalvo's name to Sacred Heart Church, 325 Willow St., San Jose, CA 95110, or the Carmelite Nuns of Santa Clara, 1000 Lincoln St., Santa Clara, CA 95050.

Homegrown: Joseph DiSalvo Sr. bragged about his prize-winning tomatoes. He had a passion for gardening and spent hours tending his crops.