City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis)…
By Adam Kramer
Every day since the traffic triangle at Hillside Avenue at the Cross Island Parkway was named after her husband, Frank LoCicero, Marie LoCicero stops for a moment to remember her spouse, who died Nov. 5, 1997.
City Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) announced July 10 that the street signs at the small Greenstreet Garden would be named The Frank LoCicero Bellerose-Hillside Civic Garden in honor of the longtime civic and community leader.
“I am very honored and happy that they remembered and honored him,” said Marie LoCicero. “I go past it everyday. If I don’t pass it, I take a walk down the block to see it.”
She said her husband became active in the Bellerose-Hillside Civic Association the moment they moved to Bellerose in 1950 and continued to be active in the organization until he died at age 79. At the civic he served as its president for 25 years and as newsletter editor.
In addition to the civic, LoCicero, 80, said her husband was active in the St. Gregory the Great Church in Bellerose.
The civic association also placed a permanent stone in the Green Street Park, just down the block from the LoCicero home on 242nd Street, as a lasting memorial to Frank LoCicero.
“I have no words to express how I feel,” LoCicero said. “I am so pleased and touched by the honor.”
The couple, who met one month after Frank came home from World War II, were introduced at a welcome home party in Astoria. After getting married they moved to Bellerose where they had a son, Richard, and a daughter, Veronica. Their children now live on Long Island.
Frank served on the Pacific front in World War II for five years, she said. His job, LoCicero said, was to sit in a plane as it flew over different areas in the Far East and draw aerial maps.
After the war, her husband, a trained commercial artist, went back to the job he had before his military service as an artist for the Norcross Greeting Card Company.
Even though her husband later stopped drawing and sculpting at home, she recalled that at 17 he had become the youngest artist to show a work in a major New York City museum. The piece exhibited was a statue made from bronze.
“I am very proud of my father,” said Richard LoCicero. “He did a tremendous service for this community.”
As a youngster, he said, he did not really understand why his father spent so much of his free time helping out the community.
“After seeing what people did to honor him it made me feel proud,” he said. “He loved this community.”
The naming of the traffic triangle after her husband took their children, five grandchildren and four great grandchildren a bit by surprise, she said, because they never realized how much he put into the community.
“I think they took everything he did for granted, until we had the unveiling on the corner,” LoCicero said. “They now realize how much he did. Right now they are very proud and tell all of their friends of the honor.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
