Salvatore A. Diliberti

December 19, 1917 - February 10, 2015

By Thomas William Diliberti, 2/12/2015

Sam’s father, Thomas came from the “old county”, Balestrate, Sicily, to Detroit in 1903 at the age of 17. His father, Antonio, had just died and he needed to find his brother, Jack, already in the US. He needed to find work in order to bring his mother and sisters to the United States.

Sam’s dad, when he came to Detroit, worked for the city hollowing out logs to make sewer pipes. He then tried working in the Ford factories but it didn’t work out. Then an opportunity arose to start an Italian food import store in the Eastern Market in Detroit and it was a great success.

Eventually, Tom arranged to have his family in Sicily send Rose Turturici to join him in 1908 to become his wife. Neither of them spoke any English. Their first child, Anthony, was born in 1915. Two years later Sam came along. It was near the end of the First World War and times were hard. In 1926, at age 11, dad’s brother died in a hospital fire.

Sam worked there with his dad and Uncle Jack and helped his folks learn English

In 1935, Sam’s parents sent him to California to see his mother’s relatives and when he got back, surprise, he had a new baby brother, Anthony John.

In 1940, at the age of 22, he met my mom, Josie, at a family party and the real adventure began. Their honeymoon was a car trip to California stopping in Milwaukee to see relatives. Along the way, they accidently ran over a turkey and stopped to cook it at a motel.

Nine months later I was born.

With the Second World War going on, Sam first tried his hand starting his own grocer business with his best friend but it didn’t work out. He then went to work in the shops learning how to operate machines with the help of a few generous co-workers.

In 1945 Sam was finally drafted into the Army and was in the Induction Center when the war ended so they sent him home.

Back in the shops, Sam spent his entire career working his way up to the largest machines you can imagine. All the while he endured the cold temperatures, long hours on midnight-shift, and missing a lot of (but not too many) pinochle games. Whenever he could he would join friends and family on camping trips. Somehow Sam was home often enough to bring to life Rose Ann, Grace Marie, Mickey, and Terrie.

In 1980, Sam retired and rushed off to Arizona with mom. There they spent ten years playing cards, clog dancing, parading, and soaking up the heat. But dad still kept his hat on.

When Sam and Jo returned to Michigan, they spent their last years enjoying their friends, 14 grand kids, their spouses, and 21 great grand kids and several grand dogs and cats as of 2015.

Jo went first in September 2011 after spending nine months in various hospitals and nursing homes. Sam spent his last time at home until January 2013 when he was admitted to Marta T. Berry nursing home, passing in February 2015.

A family to be proud of.