Celine Marie Tocco

Celine Marie Tocco was born in Detroit Michigan on February 26, 1927, the only child of Michael and Pauline Burns. Her father was born in Cornwall, England after his family emigrated from Ireland. Her father moved to the United States from England as a young man to secure a better life but faced many financial hardships, along with most of the country due to the Great Depression. It was here that he met and married Pauline Walker who was of Polish decent. Michael was 10 years older than Pauline. Celine described her father as a warm, loving, and gentle man and her mother as a strong-willed woman who was a real character. Yet, Pauline did what she needed to do to help the family stay afloat, and with only a 3rd grade education managed to find a job. Because both Michael and Pauline worked Celine's maternal grandparents played a significant role in raising Celine. They owned a bakery where Celine obtained a sweet-tooth that was to last a lifetime. Both grandparents showered affection on Celine, as did her father. Celine found being the daughter of Pauline to be a real challenge at time, yet Pauline showed a much more loving, happy, and devoted side to Celine's nine children. Very late in life Celine shared stories of how when her mother got angry at her father she would sometimes tell Celine to pack a suitcase and then took her to stay with friends until her parents made up. Celine shared that her family lived in a tent through the winter one year, together with many others trying to survive the depression. On particularly cold days Celine's father would carry her to the outhouse. Celine also told of a story of falling through the ice and having to be rescued. She said one day while working at the factory, Father lost the top of two fingers and that in those days there was no such thing as Worker's Compensation and that Father was sent home with barely more than a Band-Aid. Yet, somehow as things improved her parents managed to send Celine to Annunciation high school where Celine was fortunate enough to make life-long friends and meet her future husband, Louis Ellis. Celine said that her first impression of "Louie" was that he had a large beak of a nose. But he was a start athlete, handsome, and popular. One of her girlfriends had a crush on him and talked to Celine about all his good points - which made Celine take a closer look. Louie noticed Celine too - who was a stunning blond beauty in high school. One day he asked her out and she said yes. Her girlfriend later remarked that she "stole" Louie, but Celine made no apology for Louie choosing her! Once she and Louie began dating, Celine's life changed dramatically. The biggest change was that Louie came from a large close knit Middle-Eastern family and soon determined that Celine was to become a member of the family. Louie's father was a successful businessman who owned a grocery market - which Louie, his brother Albert, and his sister Helen eventually took over and named the Parkstone Market. The Market was among the first to offer delivery service and only sold the best meat and produce. It was even featured in a large article in the Detroit News. Celine and other members of Louie's family, and eventually many of Louie and Celine's children, worked in the market. Louie was a devoted boyfriend and always had a corsage for Celine when they went to dances at Annunciation. Louie was older than Celine so graduated ahead of her. When World War II began, he enlisted to serve in the Army. He was chosen to be sent to Officer's school but the needs of the war resulted in him being assigned to the infantry and being sent to Europe to fight in many of the most famous battles of the War. However - before he was to sail overseas his parents arranged to meet him to say goodbye. His father, Joseph decided Celine should go with them, which meant a car trip and staying at hotels. He showed up at Celine's doorstep one day, very much out of character for him. He informed Celine of the plans. She told him her father would never agree to allow her to travel without her parents. Joseph waited for hours for Celine's father to come home and somehow convinced Michael to give his permission to let Celine travel with he and Louie's Mother, Rose. After Louie was sent overseas, Celine kept a journal of the battles he fought in, the countries he traveled to, the injuries he received, the honors he was awarded, including the Purple Heart, and all the dates he wrote to her. There were hundreds of letters exchanged between Celine and Louie and countless boxes of goodies that Celine shipped overseas to Louie. Celine kept several of his telegrams announcing when he would be returning, sending his love, and making plans to meet her. I am sure it was the love they shared that helped Louie to determine to survive the war when so many fellow soldiers lost their lives. Louie was discharged from the Army on October 23, 1945. Unfortunately his father had passed away while Louie was away at war. When Louie was discharged he had earned a Theater Ribbon with 5 Bronze Stars, a Good Conduct Ribbon, a Purple Heart, and a Citation for having served in a Distinguished Unit of the Army. Louie and Celine were married less than five and a half months after Louie's discharge from the Army. At the time of their marriage Louie was 21 and Celine only 19 years old. Louie's brother Raymond Ellis was unable to marry them as he was still in the Seminary studying to become a Priest, but another family member, Father Anthony Kerry married them at Annunciation Church. There were hundreds of guests at the wedding and a huge wedding party. Louie's brother Albert was best man and Celine's friend Anna White was Maid of Honor. They took a long honeymoon after their wedding - which was good given that vacations were hard to come by when Louie's services were needed at the Parkstone Market. One of the places they visited was Niagara Falls. They also spent time at a cabin near a beach. Celine ended up getting terribly sunburned after falling asleep. She said it was Jewish women who were also vacationing there that came to her rescue and offered advice and assistance in helping her recover. When they returned from the honeymoon they moved into a little apartment close to the family market. Celine did not drive and would walk to the market to visit Louie some days due to his long hours at work, especially once the first two children were born and Celine began staying at home. Celine's mother though had a hard time accepting that Celine was living separately. Celine shared a story that her Mother dropped in so frequently unannounced that Louie decided he had to do something to discourage her - as they were still newly-weds - and so one day answered the door in his under ware. Despite the battles he won in the war, I am not sure he won this one! Pauline's strong will though did serve her well. When out of town on a rare trip with her husband Michael, Michael died of a heart attack. Pauline remained strong through the ordeal. Louie and Celine had 9 children. Celine also had a stillborn delivery which caused her considerable suffering and one miscarriage. The children included Joe, Margaret, Christine, Ray, Anne, Mary, Barbara, Susan, and Jim. This was anything but a peaceful time in Celine's life, to say the least. Both grandmothers Rose and Pauline, and Louie's sisters and their husbands took turns helping care for the children, particularly when a new one came along. The children would actually sleep overnight with a family member and sometimes stay much longer. All of the children had very fond memories of the visits with their relatives. Little Raymond apparently enjoyed his visit with Aunt Agnes and Uncle Mike Howard a little too much. He began referring to Uncle Mike as his Dad! Agnes and Mike had been unable to have children and enjoyed having the children over - especially Uncle Mike. As soon as Louie heard that Ray called Uncle Mike Dad he rushed over to re-claim his children! Having nine children was also a huge change for Celine compared to being raised as an only child. Now there were weekly visits to Louie's Mother Rose ("Sitto" as the children called her) and large and frequent family celebrations. The first home they bought was a two-family home in Grosse Pointe Park, MI. At one point they had so many children the dining room furniture had to be removed. With so many children it was impossible to properly supervise them at all times. This led to much mischief, like the time Christine and Raymond decided to borrow paint left on the landing by the upstairs tenant and painted the entire house - furniture and all. Another time Joe's friend fell on Christine and broke her leg. When Celine did not come after Christine called out, Christine had to try to inch her way to find her mother. Celine tells the story of how the next house was chosen. She was in the hospital having another child and learned that Louie and his sister Helen had gone out and purchased a much bigger new home a few blocks away. Celine would NOT have chosen that particular house - but living in Grosse Pointe Park was wonderful. Celine would bundle up the children, with Louie's help if it was a Sunday, and take the children to the park. There they would enjoy swimming, fishing, and playing - and have a picnic lunch. Celine would often get to sit and visit with her good friend and pinochle buddy, Pat VanSile, while they watched their children swimming. It was a life saver. One time when the Ellis clan left the park in their station wagon, Celine somehow forgot little Susie. Luckily her friend, Mrs. Van Sile saw Susie and got her to Celine. Yes in a large family it is hard to keep track of all the kids. Another life saver was "Elvoy." She was a woman who Louie and Celine hired to do some light housekeeping and help care for the children on a part-time basis. There came a time when Celine suffered terrible burns to both her hands which was an extremely serious and painful injury and long recovery. She remarked that after returning home from the hospital, Elvoy showed up on her doorstep although it was not her day. Elvoy then announced that she was staying and would be there every day until Celine recovered. Elvoy even took some of the children home with her. Celine said she was particularly fond of taking Raymond and Mary home who were blonds and would bring them to church to show them off to her African American friends. Raising nine children had many challenges for both Louie and Celine. Their daughter Mary needed open heart surgery and had a long recovery where she was confined to bed. Louie's father died young of a heart attack and Louie feared this fate for his children - so he began a nutrition and exercise routine - along with a rosary prayer service at home! Meanwhile Celine would bake goodies and sometimes send the children to buy special treats from the bakery. She would then tell the children: "Don't tell your father!" During this time Louie and Celine became very active in the Catholic Church at St. Ambrose. They would attend and help lead retreats for couples, and Louie would sell raffle tickets to raise money for the school's athletic program. They were also avid card players and took up Bridge as a couple. Celine and 11 of her friends formed a Pinochle Club which almost lasted a lifetime for the group. They met one evening a month at the home of one of the members, play cards, gossip, and then enjoy desert and coffee. This was a huge treat for Celine. Another treat was one that Celine gave to her children she would spend their birthdays individually with them. She would often meet downtown with her mother, and then have lunch with the birthday child. Celine and Louie also supported the Civil Rights movement. Detroit suffered a riot in 1967 with Army jeeps riding the streets up to Grosse Point Park where they lived. The family market was not burned down the way so many other building were - due to the kindness of African American customers who came to love the family and who helped guard the store. Meanwhile Celine's brother-in-law, Father Raymond Ellis made national news after commissioning an artist to paint a mural of a Black Christ on the ceiling of St. Cecilia's church in downtown Detroit, and later had a Black Madonna commissioned for the side altar. Despite caring for nine children, Celine went right back to work once the youngest child, Jimmy, began school. She worked in the family market and took on work that was really better suited for a strong young man. She ended up hurting her back and paid the price in old age. Celine used her very meager earnings from her work to pay for little extras for the children. Louie put aside savings for their "old age" and invested in the stock market. Although this could mean hand-me-down clothing for the children, it also meant that Celine had a great deal of financial security once she retired. Yet, this was also due in large measure to the lessons Celine learned early in life about the importance of saving money, and not relying on credit cards. Celine also found time to can fruit and vegetables and make jam. She began giving out jam as Christmas presents to neighbors. One year she decided to skip corners and just give out her prized banana bread. One of the neighbors, Mrs. Isaac would not stand for it. Her daughter Mary Ann was Celine's daughter Anne's best friend. Mrs. Isaac sent Anne home to tell her mother she was very thankful for the banana bread but needed her Christmas strawberry jam! Once the children were in high school, Louie and Celine became friends with the Tocco family who lived next door. As it happened, Louie and Humphrey Tocco both worked in the food industry with family. They would meet at the break of dawn at the Detroit Market to buy produce. Louie remarked to Celine that he liked Humphrey and "what a hard-working man he was". Neither Celine nor Louie realized just how close the two families would become until Celine's daughter, Anne fell in love with Humphrey's son, Jim and the rest as they say, was history - with Jim and Anne marrying and eventually having five children. Then Celine suffered a huge loss when her beloved husband Louie died suddenly of a heart attack at age 45. Celine was only 43 and had six children still dependent on her. The family had moved to a big modern home in Grosse Pointe Woods. Celine found to her surprise that Louie had named the children directly in his life insurance policy. Most likely, Louie believed that his savings and the value of his share of the family business would be sufficient for the future, but he had no idea he would pass away so young in life. Unfortunately, Celine found that it would take much longer than expected for her to receive her share in the family business, a down-side of a closely held small business. In the meantime, she had to quickly make many difficult decisions. She first decided that the Grosse Pointe Woods home had to be sold. This home was her dream home, but providing adequately for the children came first. She bought a much smaller home in Grosse Pointe Farms. She also needed more income than she could get from working in the family market. Working at Parkstone had become more difficult with the ubiquitous memories of her beloved husband, Louie at the market. So Celine began a job search that ended well when she literally knocked on the HR door of Blue-Cross Blue Shield seeking a low-level unskilled job. The HR manager recognized her potential and offered her a position in their claims department. Celine loved her new job and was eventually promoted to a supervisory position. She reluctantly retired when Blue-Cross Blue Shield offered an early out for employees. One of her friends wisely told her that the company would unlikely ever offer such a good package to employees, including lifelong health insurance. However we need to back-up a few years. Many years after Louie's death, their daughter Anne and son-in-law Jim Tocco had moved to Outer Drive north of Mack Avenue where they were living with their beautiful daughters Lisa and Nicole. Jim's parents had divorced and his father Humphrey had come to live with them. One night after Humphrey had been living with them for quite some time they decided to go out to the movies and invited Humphrey who agreed to join them. Then Anne suggested to Jim that they invite her mother to go as well. With Celine accepting the offer, the beginning of the next phase of Celine's life and her second great romance was kindled. Celine and Humphrey began dating and eventually decided to marry. But they also decided that they did not want their adult children weighing in on their decision. Nonetheless, all the children were happy that they did marry! Seven years after Louie's death, Celine married Humphrey after "eloping" to Las Vegas with one other couple to act as their best man and maid of honor. As a result, Celine had a blended family of 16 children - although Humphrey's children (Carole, Jim, Paul, John, Chris, Tony and Debbie) did not live with them. A new tradition was also begun: Christmas Eve was celebrated with Celine's children, and Christmas morning with whomever of Celine's children who were at the house, and Christmas afternoon was spent with Humphrey's children. They were living in Celine's small home in Grosse Pointe Farms which was much too small to host everyone at the same time, particularly because, by this time, so many of the children were adults, married, and had children of their own. Celine began a lifetime tradition of remembering every child and grandchild's birthday with a card and check (or gift.) She and Humphrey loved visiting with the children and grandchildren. For Celine's grandchildren, Humphrey was truly "Grand Pa" as Louie died before they were born. In fact they welcomed all the grandchildren but really went above and beyond in having out-of-towners, including Jennifer and Marian among others, come and stay with them. Humphrey was famous with the Ellis children, for making them feel welcome when visiting and would sometimes surprise them by treating them all to dinner. When Susan lived at home and was dating Dale, Dale he would drive over from Grand Rapids for the weekend occasionally. When he arrived at 8pm on a Friday night, Humphrey would often say to Celine, "Honey, make Dale a steak" and she would. Celine took particular joy from close relationships she developed not only with Humphrey's children, but their spouses and children. She really could not ever have too many visits from them. And she was always touched when they remembered her birthday, Mother's Day, or Christmas! They did this right up to her death. She was always grateful for their kindness and appreciative of their company and caring concern. Celine also began traveling with Humphrey to Las Vegas due to Humphrey's love of gambling. Celine discovered she was very lucky with the one armed bandits called slot machines. And Humphrey was wise enough to know when to take his winnings and walk away from gambling and hold losses to a minimum. No easy trick! One plus for Celine, was if he did win, he loved to take her shopping! Years later Humphrey developed a devastating respiratory illness from his years of smoking - something that Celine also did much to the dismay of her children. Celine was a vigilant care-giver to Humphrey. She agonized over every major health decision she helped him make. It was a second great loss for her when he passed away. Celine then began another major phase of her life. She sold her home in Grosse Pointe Farms and with the help of her son Jim, to name one of the many who helped, selected her last home in Clinton Township off 15 mile Road and Utica. She took great pride in this home - and loved decorating it with the help of daughter Anne. To her great happiness, her daughter Barbara moved in with her which meant that she did not have to live alone. Growing up as an only child had left its mark on Celine - which helped her and Louie decide on having a large family. The Catholic Church had a little something to do with that too. But although Celine may have been a bit over-protective of Barbara, Celine was extremely proud of Barbara's achievements and zest for life. Indeed, when Barbara was happy - it was contagious. And Barbara was the one who would call each brother and sister without fail to wish them Happy Birthday. Barbara did hope to one day live on her own, but shared that she felt like a queen living with Celine. Celine felt a huge relief and blessing when Anne came to live with her after Barbara passed away. Celine began to depend heavily on Anne as she lost her vision. Unfortunately Celine could become anxious if every detail in her life was not as orderly as she would like it to be - and Anne would hear all about it! The family was all very grateful for the support Anne (and Jimmy) in particular gave to Celine when she most needed it. Celine began what became a treasured and almost annual tradition - which was to take a cruise. She often treated one of her children who did not have the funds, to travel with her. And others would sometimes join her. Her absolute favorite cruise was the one in Alaska with her granddaughter, Nicole and daughter Susan where the cast from Wheel of Fortune (her all-time favorite TV show) were on board. She loved to brag how the cast tried to talk Nicole into coming to Hollywood where they were sure she would become famous. Celine was with her daughter Mary when she won a cruise - while on a cruise. Celine did it while playing Bingo - another passion she developed late in life. As Mary remarked when Mother got the final winning number, she jumped out of her chair - almost to the ceiling - and loudly proclaimed BINGO!! She then walked down the steps "sashaying" about saying Bingo, bingo, bingo to claim her cruise. And unbelievably, this was not the only time she "won big." Another time on the first day of a cruise with Christine, she won an upgrade to a suite - of course only after Chris had unpacked in her lower grade cabin!! It was good that Celine had so many happy moments and memories, because she also had her share of heart-aches, particularly with the loss of three of her children, Barbara, Margaret and Raymond. She coped best by avoiding talking about their deaths. But the loss of these children was felt very deeply. She did have other blessings in life. She was blessed with wonderful son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. She knew how lucky she was. Yet, she also tried to be supportive if a son or daughter divorced. Another great joy was joining the parish of St. Ronald's on 15 Mile Road. She joined the altar society, strengthened her friendship with her longtime friend, Alice and made many new friends - enjoyed the many social gatherings sponsored by the church - and loved joining her friends on Sunday morning for breakfast after Mass. She sang their praises many times. Her friend Alice became Celine's lifeline to one of her greatest joys in life - her weekly beauty salon visit! Alice, God bless her, was a devoted friend, taking Celine to her appointments - refusing gas money - and simply waiting for Celine and then joining her for dinner. Celine loved these outings with Alice. Her one big regret in life was taking up smoking, starting at such an early age. She had the will power to reduce her smoking but could never completely quit. Yet, it did not define her life. She lived life to the fullest. Two days before she died, she enjoyed a lovely party at her grandson, Dane's new house and was so excited for Dane and Samantha, expecting their first child. She talked to Samantha's grandmother and became friends with her. Family, friends and faith were so important to Celine. She taught her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren well leading by her example. She was a great role model and hard to follow. So many will miss her deeply, a true matriarch.

Funeral Home:

A.H. Peters Funeral Home

32000 Schoenherr Road

Warren, MI

US 48088