John Errico, gregarious deli clerk and cook, dies

After his wife died in 2006, John M. Errico's social life needed a little boost, his son thought. So Salvatore Errico took his father to a senior citizen center in Ronkonkoma.

"He didn't know anybody there," said Salvatore Errico, 55, of Ronkonkoma, "and by the end of the day they were all singing Italian songs with him and didn't want him to leave."

John M. Errico died Monday of heart failure at a Smithtown nursing home, his family said. He was 88 and since 1983 lived in Patchogue and then Ronkonkoma. "He could walk into a room and connect to situations that were so far beyond his education," his son said.

Born in Brooklyn, Errico's father died when he was a baby, family said. So as the eldest son, he quit school in the early 1930s, finding work in groceries and markets to help support the family. His daughter, Mary Errico Rispoli of Floral Park, said a driving work ethic, one he passed to his children, sprouted from those meager beginnings.

"My dad was always strengthening me by saying, 'stick to it,' " Rispoli, a dentist, said. "You hear today that you should go with your passion. My dad was telling me that in the '60s and '70s. You can do whatever you want; you just have to want it."

Errico served in the Army from 1944 till 1946, primarily working in London hospitals, and upon his discharge used his military training as a medical technician and cook's helper to land jobs in New York delis. For years, customers knew him as an outgoing, gregarious deli clerk and cook, his son said.

Often, to make ends meet, Errico juggled three or four jobs. His wife, Serafina, also known as Maggie, would earn extra money preparing Italian dishes for the delis where he worked or sewing for high-end dress shops in the garment district.

"My father would take trays of lasagna to the delis on the subway trains he rode to work," Salvatore Errico said. On return trips he'd often bring back dresses and clothes from the garment district for his wife to sew.

In addition to working at delis in Manhattan and Brooklyn, including Merit Farms, he worked for McPeak's Assisted Living in Patchogue; Giunta's Meat Farms markets; and helped his other son, Elia, who now lives in Jacksonville, Fla., operate a Patchogue bike shop.

In addition to his children, Errico is survived by two sisters who still live in Brooklyn, Anna Cantellmo and Elizabeth Pulgiano, and nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation is Thursday at Moloney Family Funeral Home, Ronkonkoma. A funeral Mass will be celebrated 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Church, Ronkonkoma, followed by burial at Calverton National Cemetery.