OBITUARY

Sadie Salerno, of Merrick, dies at 108

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Cira “Sadie” Salerno, a devoted family woman whose remarkable longevity made her the beloved matriarch of a large clan of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives, died of natural causes on Feb. 21. She was 108.

Born close to the turn of the century in Little Italy to tradition-minded immigrant parents from Sicily, Salerno (née Scarpulla) lived to see revolutions in practically all modes of life and took it all in stride, according to family members. Habitually upbeat and kind, Salerno was forever smiling, those who knew her said.

“She was a pleasure to be around,” said her son Robert Salerno. “She always managed to make me happy. She was all about making you laugh or smile. That was her theme in life.”

Her grandson Ron Luparello said much the same. “Her big thing was her smile,” Luparello said. “She always had a really big smile. You’d see her smiling at her age, and you’d go, ‘Why can’t everyone smile?’”

Sadie lived her last three decades in south Merrick with her daughter and son-in-law, Pauline and Anthony Luparello. She moved in with them a few years after her husband of 56 years, Salvatore Salerno, died in 1982. But her heart remained in Brooklyn, where she raised her children and lived for a half-century in a second-floor, two-bedroom apartment on East Second Street in Midwood. Robert Salerno recalled it as a middle-class neighborhood with many Italian, Jewish and Irish residents. When the Herald Life interviewed Sadie and Pauline on Sadie’s 108th birthday last fall, Pauline lightheartedly said her mother was a well-versed “kibitzer.”

“She was very well known on the block,” Ron said this week.

One of six children of Francesco and Francesca Scarpulla, Sadie was born on Oct. 6, 1906, at home on Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street. She grew up in a “poor but proud” immigrant family, according to Robert Salerno and another grandson, Robert Luparello. Life revolved around family, work and the Catholic Church.

Sadie attended primary school and received her first communion at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street. As a teenager, she worked as a seamstress to support her family. Sewing for long hours Monday through Saturday, she earned $9 a week and gave the money to her parents.

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