People named Samuel Bisese

Samuel Salvatore Bisese was my great-grandfather. My mother told me that he came to America at the age of eight. He went to school for a day, but was teased by the children because of his English, or lack thereof. He never went back! He became a successful entrepreneur and was very good at keeping his own books. He was Sicilian and was paid by families to accompany their daughters from Sicily to America. This is how he met my great-grandmother, Marie. They originally settled in Roanoke, VA, where my grandfather was in the produce business. My grandfather was a barber in Portsmouth, VA but his close friend, Matty Russo, was also in the produce business. I assume it was through some sort of business relationship that my Uncle Matty and my grandfather, Angelo Patrick Morlino, met their future wives, Rosina and Marie, respectively. My grandmother's diary speaks of her excitement at my grandfather's periodic visits to Roanoke, but she graduated from St. Joseph's High School in Portsmouth. My assumption is that the family moved to Portsmouth during the courtship. The two couples were married in an elaborate double wedding in Portsmouth. Salvatore had a house built at the end of Peninsula Avenue on Scotts Creek in the Parkview section of Portsmouth, where they raised five children, enjoyed many, many grandchildren, and died quietly in their beds in their 90s, cared for by their youngest son, Jerome (Uncle Jerry), his wonderful wife, Jean, and their five children. One of my mother's favorite stories to tell was how Grandpa Bisese would walk around the house while it was being built, pick up any bent nails that had been discarded by the workmen, straighten them, and throw them back in the pail.

Samuel Bisese of Catonsville, Baltimore County, Maryland was born on March 1, 1903, and died at age 80 years old in April 1983.