On Saturday evening, the International Society of SS. Cosma and Damiano will host their 20th Annual Dinner Dance at Roma View Catering and will recognize two Howard Beach icons as their prime honorees. Domenica Marjorie Centrone and John Gurino Sr. will be honored as the Italian-American Businessman and Woman of the Year.
The honorees are as synonymous with Howard Beach as are fond memories of the Bow Wow, Pizza City and so many other integral components of the communities history.
Joseph DeCandia Jr., President of the Society, describes each with great respect. “It is our privilege to be able to recognize two people who were so very instrumental in sculpting this great community into what it is today. They are both business leaders and great models for the youth of this community and every other one, to follow.”
Both honorees have lived and worked in Howard Beach for most of their lives and contributed to the community by shaping the local real estate industry; in addition, each remained dedicated to the formation and preservation of local charities as well. Coincidentally , the recipients were born in Brooklyn. and both mothers were named Carmella.
D. Marjorie Centrone
Domenica Marjorie Centrone was the first-born daughter of Carmela and Sylvester in Brooklyn; sister Marianna followed a few years behind.
Marge, as she is known by her friends, attended grammar school at P.S. 246 and attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn. A practicing attorney for the last 56 years she attended Long Island University and later Brooklyn Law School.
But boasting about being one of the first women lawyers to graduate from LIU isn’t what you get from Marge. What she brags about is her heritage that stems from Bari, Italy. With a big smile she lets everyone know– “I’m Barase. True blue Barase.”
Humble beginnings found Marge working on ice and coal trucks with her father. Her sense of what is fair and right started way back then, in the lessons she learned as a child. Once while working as an attorney years ago, a man called her a shyster. Marge responded by telling the man that it was not she who was the shyster in her family—it was her father. The gentleman asked, “Is your father a lawyer too?”
To those who know her, the response she gave in answer to the man’s question is what really defines the uniqueness and the sincerity of Marge Centrone. “When I was a kid on the ice truck with my father,” she began her explanation, “he would tell that if a 15 cent piece of ice had a hole in it, I should put it at the back of the customer’s ice box.”
With a smile she went on, “When I was 12-years-old I was wheeling barrels of coal and I asked my father why did we turn barrels over and cover them?” Her father’s response was that the covered barrels were those that were short of coal. “Now,” she asked the man, “do you know who the real shyster is in my family?”
When she decided she wanted to go to college, she approached the family patriarch about it. He said “Why can’t you go to work?” Eventually, Sylvester said his daughter could go to college—but it would be on her own steam—he wasn’t giving her a dime. But he said “You can live at home.”
With the determination still as present as it is today she went to school with the last group of World War II veterans allowed to attend law school with only two years of college. She completed a two-year course of college in 13 months followed by three years of law school in two years and two months. She worked in Martin’s Department Store and when she graduated from law school, she did so with all bills paid.
Marge presently practices in Ozone Park and is active in many charities and serves on several boards. Her charitable affiliations include Angels on the Bay and the National Multiple Scelrosis Society. She is also a leading benefactor to the West Hamilton Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Department.
John R. Gurino, Sr.
In 1926, the first ever Winnie the Pooh book by A.A. Milne was published, real estate on Broadway and Wall Street” Wall Street in New York City was sold at a record $7 per sq inch., U.S. Route 66 officially opened from Chicago to Los Angeles and, on July 9, Antonio Gurino waited anxiously as his wife Carmella gave birth to their son, John R. Gurino. He was one of thirteen children born in East New York, Brooklyn. Now 85 years later, he and his sister Jeanette are the only living siblings
In 1944 at the age of 18 he went into the army and served in World War II until 1947. John was not yet 22 years old when he met Lenora Sepe on May 5, 1948. A little over two years later in November of 1950 they tied the knot at St. Michael’s Church in Brooklyn.
The couple had three wonderful children Anthony, John and Angelo. The Gurino’s began raising their family in their first home in Richmond Hill. John worked in the limousine business, driving for hours, long into the night.
Eventually he had saved enough to go into the construction business and bought his first piece of property in Howard Beach. It was there, in 1965, that he built his second home, the one he lives in to this day.
For many years he continued with hard work and investing in properties on Cross Bay Boulevard. And in 1978, John Gurino bought the piece of property on which sits the Howard Beach food icon known as Ragtime. It’s now more than thirty years that his family run business has served the community, and been an innovator in bringing gourmet delacacies from every region of Italy.
At the age of 85, John is still working every day. He has a very specific job– making sure everyone else is doing theirs– and doing it right. He and Lenore have been blessed with 62 wonderful years together. They have 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
John Gurino is a greatly beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great grandfather—and to the staff of Ragtime he is simply Mr. G.
John enjoys reading the newspaper every day, playing cards, going to the casino and watching the Yankee game. But when you ask what his best time is, the answer is always the same, “Sunday dinner, at the table, with my family.”
By Patricia Adams
