Obituary

He valued his family, coffee and a good cigar

Peter Pasetti, 93, was married 73 years and lived out his life in the house he built on Cordelia Street with family close by.

By MARTY CLEAR
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 11, 2003

WEST TAMPA -- A generation of Tampa workers started their day with Peter Pasetti's coffee.

Seven days a week, for some 20 years, Mr. Pasetti rose in the dark of the night to work at the Fourth of July Cafe on Howard Avenue, which he owned from the 1950s to the mid '70s.

"He used to go in at 4 in the morning to start the coffee for the blue-collar workers," said his only child, Mary Louise Gegunde. "Then the doctors and the white-collar people would come in."

Mr. Pasetti died Saturday (April 5, 2003) at age 93 at his home in West Tampa. His daughter described him as a caring, loving father.

"He was the best daddy one could hope for," she said.

In the late 1800s, Mr. Pasetti's parents moved from northern Italy to Ocala, where many Italians had gone to work in the grape-growing industry.

His parents didn't know each other in Italy but met and married in Ocala. When the grape business failed, they moved to Tampa because it had a thriving Italian community.

Since they were from northern Italy and most of Tampa's Italians were from the south, the Pasettis soon found they had more in common with the city's Spanish immigrants. As a result, Mr. Pasetti's upbringing had more of a Spanish flavor than an Italian one.

"My father liked rice better than pasta," Gegunde said.

When he was 20 years old, he married Dulce, whose family had immigrated from Spain. They remained happily married for 73 years until Mr. Pasetti's death.

Early in their marriage, Mr. Pasetti worked as a cigar selector.

"The cigar selectors were the ones with keen eye," Gegunde said. "They examined the cigars to make sure the colors and the shapes and sizes were all the same before they were boxed."

After work and on weekends, he built a home for his family on Cordelia Street in the late 1940s. On the same block live the families of Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella and St. Louis Cardinals player Tino Martinez.

Dulce Pasetti's father owned the Fourth of July Cafe at the time, and Peter Pasetti took it over when his father-in-law retired.

The work didn't leave many hours for Mr. Pasetti to spend with his family, but his daughter said he always seemed to be there when they needed him.

Mr. Pasetti lived in the Cordelia house for the rest of his life. He stayed busy and independent until a few years ago, when an aneurism, congested lungs, hip replacement surgery and other medical conditions slowed him down. To help care for him, his granddaughter moved in next door.

Despite deteriorating health, he remained active and alert. Even on the day he died, he observed his morning ritual. He sat on his beloved front porch, smoked his daily cigar and drank his daily cocktail at 10 a.m.

He drank his last cup of coffee, then slipped into unconsciousness and died later that afternoon surrounded by family.

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