John Tancredi, an active, longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away on September 22 after a prolonged illness. He was 85. Born on Christmas in 1923, in San Marco in Lamis, Italy, to Thomas and Graziella Tancredi, John attended school for three years, but at the age of 9 he went to work for a rancher/farmer. He lived away from home, only coming home for the day every other Sunday. He was a shepherd and watched over sheep seven days a week, from dawn to dusk. He worked in this job for a year, at which point his family moved to the United States in 1934. Although he was 10 years old, John was placed in the first grade at Bryan School in Akron, Ohio, because he couldn’t speak English. After about six months, he had learned English and was double promoted; he eventually almost caught up with his age group in school. Around the age of 11 or 12, John went to work for the Columbus Cleaners and Tailors, which included a shoe repair shop. He would deliver the cleaned clothing with the owner, dropping off the clothes at the door and collecting the money. He also helped the shoemaker prepare shoes for resoling and re-heeling. In the fall he would dye white shoes to brown or black. At North High School, John was senior class president (class of ’43). During his junior and senior years, he worked 40 hours a week at the Palace Theater while going to school fulltime. John was drafted by the Air Force in March 1943 and sent to two air mechanics schools. But as a native Italian speaker, he was pulled from his squadron and trained to be an interpreter in North Africa and Italy. Alas, the Army misplaced his records and he ended up with a group of Air Force ‘misfits’ in Cheltenham, England. After doing KP duty every day for six weeks from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., he was ready to desert! Fortunately, John was transferred to Army Headquarters in London for a six-month period. He was stationed two blocks away from Eisenhower’s Supreme Allied Command. He never knew he was with Eisenhower’s headquarters until he returned to England 51 years later and retraced all the locations where he had served there from July 1943 to June 1944. Before D-Day, John was asked to join a special team to help build a group of 2,000 men to be part of a service group backing up the fighting invasion force. His group landed at Normandy on D-Day plus 7 and followed the fighting army through all the European campaigns: Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. After the European war was over, John was sent from Germany to Paris as part of a military band. He spent three months in the band with 90 other men, playing fifth saxophone. He spent most of the time having fun, rehearsing with the band about two hours a day, and playing football, baseball and basketball the rest of the time. Returning home in November 1945, John worked for several pressing clothes. He married Anna Rose LaRusso on October 18, 1947, and they moved to Pacific Palisades in 1958. John became an active member of Corpus Christi Catholic Church and School for over 50 years. John went to college on the GI Bill and majored in accounting. After graduating, he worked for the Farmers Insurance Group for 40 years in accounting and human resources, until retiring in 1991. In April 1956, Anna Rose and John celebrated the birth of Michael, their first son. Thomas was born in June 1958 and John Paul was born in June 1965. In town, John was an active member of American Legion Post 283 and also coached in the Palisades Boys Baseball Association for several years. John married Joan Kolodin, another long-time Palisades resident, in 1979 and celebrated 30 years of marriage this past January. In addition to his wife, John is survived by his three sons Michael, Thomas and John Paul; his three stepchildren Steven, Susan and Richard; daughters-in-law Karen and Nancy; and 15 grandchildren: Sarah, Megan, Samantha, Zachary, Elizabeth, Allison, Christopher, Michelle, Daniel, David, Catherine, Michaela, Brian, Nicolas and Gabriel. Funeral services were held at Holy Cross Mortuary in Culver City on September 26.
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