Villages-News.com we announce the sudden passing of Mario Joseph Ragusa on January 6 he later immigrated to the United States with his family MA and then enlisted in the US Navy in 1966 Upon completion of his service he married the love of his life They began their life together in Groveland ultimately raising their children in West Newbury Mario attended Northeastern University graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree He began working at General Electric in Lynn NH and lived on an apple tree lined lot in a house built by their son Mario spent endless hours lovingly pruning his apple trees and caring for his gardens brought he and Donna to their home in The Villages It is here that he felt most content and truly embraced the lifestyle Mario and Donna were blessed with a wonderful group of neighbors and friends who have been their “family away from home” Mario had a great sense of humor and loved to talk He had a knack for fixing things and was the go-to handyman on Luckett Court He also happily hosted the weekly Friday night “driveway parties” and insisted anyone new to the neighborhood join them His neighbors referred to him as the “Energizer Bunny” and reveled in the fact that he was always there to lend a helping hand He had a love for Golf and enjoyed every round he played (at least the ones when he played well) during his summers in Massachusetts and winters in Florida Mario enjoyed spending time with his family He loved giving them advice about anything and everything To say he was proud of his children and grandchildren would be an understatement He was also determined to bring his family together this summer and was thrilled to attend a Ragusa Family Reunion It was truly a great day and memory to be cherished NH and Christopher Mario Ragusa and his wife Holly of Newburyport He also leaves behind his beloved grandchildren as well as his favorite grand dogs Sherman and Bailey Mario leaves behind his loving and loyal siblings Mario is also survived by a large community of close friends in New England and Florida In lieu of flowers and gifts the family requests donations be made to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page LITTLE ITALY — Ascending to an upper floor of the Italian American Museum’s new building on Mulberry Street brings one face-to-face with the heroes and villains of epic poetry from the Great Renaissance Lining the walls are dozens of brightly painted life-size wooden figures — marionettes — most notably Orlando the chief paladin (or knight) of King Charlemagne The characters include the treacherous Count Gano dazzled audiences in Little Italy under the direction of master puppeteer Agrippino Manteo from 1923 until 1939 “Papa Manteo’s Marionettes” have a new home in the Italian American Museum (IAM) at 151 Mulberry Street — a short walk from its longtime venue at 109 Mulberry who came here in the early part of the 20th century,” said Joseph Scelsa Scelsa said the acquisition dates back to the 1980s when he befriended Agrippino’s son who struggled to find suitable storage for the retired marionettes “He was looking for one spot,” Scelsa said he gave me all the puppets that they had left in their collection I made the promise that I would bring them back to Mulberry Street  “And that’s why they’re here today.” he went to live on his grandmother’s farm but often ran away to escape harsh child labor he discovered “Opera dei Pupi” (opera of the puppets) — an art form that proliferated since the early 1800s in Sicily It was “love at first sight,” said Jo Ann Cavallo author of “The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo: The Paladins of France in America.” who is chair of the Italian Department at Columbia University described how Agrippino was fascinated by the workings of the ornate life-size puppets and went backstage to learn more “The cultural scene at the time was one in which puppet theater was alive and on par with dramatic theater,” Cavallo told The Tablet Opera dei Pupi gained new audiences in Manhattan’s Little Italy where immigrants worked long hours for low wages to pay rent in dingy tenements they swapped their homesickness for the familiar performances of stories based on Giusto Lodico’s “La Storia de Paladini di Francia” (The History of the Paladins of France) Agrippino came to New York with his wife and children in 1919 but the puppeteer delayed his New York theater launch until he had built his marionettes and wrote scripts for the performances the theater was thriving on Mulberry Street Cavallo said the productions were illuminated by thrilling scripts based on Lodico’s “The History of the Paladins of France.” This work was first published in 1858-1860 and updated 1895-1896 by Giuseppe Leggio Lodico based his stories on many Renaissance poems most notably Matteo Maria Boiardo’s “Orlando Innamorato” (1483) and Ludovico Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” (1516) The verses relate how the paladin Orlando becomes insane after falling in love with Angelica Spoiler alert: Orlando regains his sanity in time to save the realm of the Frankish King Charlemagne — ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 768 to 814 Orlando and fellow paladins repel the invasion of Saracen armies ruled by Agramante Legendary stories about Charlemagne and his paladins were experienced as part of a shared history in France and Italy Charlemagne had presided over an extensive Christian realm to which the various Italian states had belonged.” Cavallo said some of these stories uniquely appealed to Catholic audiences “an angel would descend to transport his soul to heaven.” She also described an episode from “Orlando Innamorato” in which Orlando compassionately assists the 11th-hour conversion of a vanquished foe mixed with a celestial melody,” Agricane says My vision is blurred … I’m losing my energy … My strength is failing … God “Agrippino Manteo stages the scene in a way that invites the audience to participate in a liturgical ritual,” Cavallo said there would be beautifully constructed puppets presided over the transfer of the puppets to the museum “It was theater by night,” he told The Tablet After an estimated 6,000 daily performances Agrippino closed the theater in 1939 after the death of his youngest son just like the tales of modern “Star Wars” characters or comic book superheroes Your email will be used to send you The Tablet newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy. More info Create your free account or log in to continue reading The Tablet is the newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn, serving Brooklyn and Queens since 1908.© 2025 DeSales Media Group, Inc. Website by 345 Design ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Home » Military History » Military Milestones » Sherman tanks storm through Sicily Lieutenant Jack Wallace recovers from wounds suffered on the Italian mainland in the months following the invasion of Sicily a 23-year-old Sherman tank commander with the Three Rivers Regiment arrived in Sicily in the heat of summer 77 years ago he recalled in Shermans in Sicily: The Diary of a Young Soldier his regiment was ordered to join the attack on Burgio reproduced in Canadian Military History in 1998 they rolled through three towns that were taken or surrendered General Bernard (Monty) Montgomery addresses the troops in Sicily “Monty [Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery] came to inspect our regiment… Recalling that the Edmonton Regiment had been stationed in an old brewery in England he asked the men if they would like a beer They answered with a deafening “Yes!” but Monty responded quietly with we were ordered to push north with the Edmonton Regiment into Ragusa I was perched on top of the turret with a platoon commander when a burst of machine-gun fire whistled across in front of us as we entered town.” His gunner destroyed the house whence it came “but not before two of our infantrymen had been killed and six others wounded pushing on through the night to the road junction at Licodia “Our orders were to contact the main force of Canadian troops on our right in the area around Grammichele…we could see smoke rising from the town…The roads were jammed with Canadian artillery and transport moving toward Caltagirone The town had taken an awful blasting from our bombers and artillery There were dead horses disembowelled on the side of the road creating an unbearable stench we crossed a time-bombed bridge which blew up only minutes after our last tank made it over.” Canadian forces had been training for three years in England before they saw action in Sicily “We shelled a sandpit where the Germans were supposed to have a mortar dug in… but all our gunners hit it with their first shots We advanced further and encountered a platoon of infantry from the RCR [Royal Canadian Regiment] held up by enemy machine-gun fire Our squadron knocked out three machine-gun emplacements before being called back to prepare for another attack.” “I put on my tin helmet for the first time since we were getting some sporadic shelling We crossed some railway tracks but hadn’t gone 20 yards [18 metres] when a mortar shell landed directly in front of us From a standing position the concussion threw me onto the tank’s floor My helmet was knocked off and blood trickled from a gash in my forehead The mortar shell ripped a hole in my helmet two inches long and an inch wide.” An oily gun-cleaning rag was used to stop the bleeding “We’d moved only 20 yards further when another terrific blast lifted the front end of the tank off the ground I thought we’d received a direct shell hit on the tracks but actually we’d run into a minefield.” Wallace’s tank made it through the invasion of Sicily 7 his tank was destroyed stopping a German counterattack at Termoli though so severely wounded he spent six months in hospital before being sent home to Canada Get the latest stories on military history veterans issues and Canadian Armed Forces delivered to your inbox An informative primer on Canada’s crucial role in the Normandy landing We’ve stripped out the street names and lost the labels – but can you still recognise the cities from their aerial views Febal Casa is strengthening its presence across the market the brand inaugurated 18 new mono-brand stores in Italy and abroad the 700 square meter Febal Casa Tiburtina store has opened in Rome was celebrated the opening of the 200 square meter Febal Casa Sarzana store in La Spezia the 365 square meter Febal Casa Savonashop opened in Savona at Via Cesare Briano the 175 square meter Febal Casa Imperia store opened at Piazza Unità Nazionale the 320 square meter Febal Casa Avellino store was inaugurated in Avellino at Via Circumvallazione 361 and the 440 square meter Febal Casa Maddaloni flagship store opened in Maddaloni (Caserta) at Via Napoli The 260 square meterFebal Casa Seriate store opened in Seriate (Bergamo) at Via Cassinone and the 380 square meter Febal Casa Comostore opened in Grandate (Como) at S.s Dei Giovi the 200 square meter Febal Casa Messina Centro store opened at Via Cesare Battisti 125 the Febal Casa Grammichele shop opened at Via Raffaele Failla with an exhibition area of 230 square meters the Febal Casa San Mauro flagship store celebrated its 196 square meter inauguration in Turin at Str the Febal Casa Monopoli store in Monopoli (Bari) opened its doors with a 250 square meter exhibition space at Via San Donato the following stores were inaugurated: Febal Casa Tallin in Estonia The layout of all the new Febal Casa stores embodies the concept of modern living and contemporary homes designed to showcase various collections and provide customers with a unique shopping experience customers can benefit from high-quality consultancy and design services explore complete sample displays and choose from a range of personalized furnishing options Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list automobile mechanic (born 30 December 1909 in Deseronto Brant was awarded the Military Medal (MM) for attacking a superior enemy force during the battle for Grammichele in Sicily (seeSecond World War) but was killed later during a battle on the Italian mainland (see The Italian Campaign)