James Vincent DiMiceli

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of James Vincent DiMiceli of Coconut Creek, FL, born in Brooklyn, New York on October 15, 1930, died on September 3, 2025 at the age of 94.

Parents - Salvatore DiMiceli and Francesca Castagna

Spouse – Mary DiMiceli (died in 2021)

Siblings - Johnny I (who died as a small child), Maria (died in 2024), Johnny II Nieces - Maria and Julianna Nephews - Steven and Richard Cousins - hundreds spread out mostly in NY and Sicily

Favorite music and songs: Frankie Laine (especially Get Along, Don't fence me in, and The Call of the Wild Goose), To Dream the impossible dream, My way, Tony Bennett, Time to say goodbye (Sara Brightman/Bocelli, and everything by Andrea Bocelli), South Pacific (Some enchanted evening) Favorite movies: Painted Wagons, South Pacific, Caroussel, West Side Story

Vinnie's parents were Francesca Castagna DiMiceli and Salvatore DiMiceli, who were both born in Monreale, Sicily. Francesca worked as a dressmaker in the garment district and made many of the family’s clothes growing up, as well as all of her own dresses. There were always new dress patterns laid out on the dining room table, with all sorts of lines and measurements. The back sewing room was often buzzing with activity as Francesca worked her singer sewing machine with her little foot. Vinnie's father Salvatore was a shoemaker and also worked in Manhattan. Their relatives in Sicily worked as basket weavers, tailors and also shoemakers.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Vinnie was a tough kid, but not out of control like some of the other James Dean types around him. He very rarely drank and (mostly) stayed out of trouble. He did, however, end up spending one night in jail after accidently shooting a kid with a German air gun filled with bb pellets. A friend of his received the gun from his brother, who was in the army in Germany, and he wanted to try it out with Vinnie. They were just shooting at a fence in his friend's backyard, and Vinnie's shot went right through the fence and injured a boy in the adjacent yard. Two detectives came to the DiMiceli house the next day and took Vinnie into custody. One of Vinnie's cousins (who ran the funeral home and was well connected in the community) made a few phone calls, and the charges against Vinnie were dropped the next day. He definitely learned his lesson, and stayed away from shooting anything after that! (aside from his time in the Korean War).

His big passion was sports, and he was great in everything he tried, especially basketball (he was actually offered a basketball scholarship to college, but needed to work and support the family), football, tennis, hand ball and paddle ball. He was also an avid golf pro and won several golf championships at his home course in Wynmoor Village, Coconut Creek.

In Brooklyn the family had access to the roof, where papa Salvatore used to keep carrier pigeons and got them to fly in big circles. When his father wasn't around, Vinnie also liked to conduct the flying pigeons.

Uncle Vinnie was Francesca’s whipping boy and gofer. He told stories about his mother sending him out in snowstorms to find his brother Johnny, who always seemed to disappear right before dinner, as well as his father, who like to sneak away and enjoy his private secret vices (although Francesca and the whole family knew his every move). It was a DiMiceli steadfast rule that everyone had to sit down and eat together, every evening without exception. If you were late, you were strictly reprimanded, and sometimes even beaten with a wooden spoon! (or if Salvatore got all riled up, which usually coincided with him sticking his entire fist into his mouth, with his hand or with his belt)

On one particularly cold snowy night, Vinnie came home work with (as he described it) icicles hanging from his nose. He was so happy to be home and finally in a warm space. Francesca was in the kitchen cooking up a storm as usual, the windows all steamed up in a cloud of Sicilian scents and aromas. As soon as she saw him, she asked without any further greeting: ‘’dove tuo fratello?’’ (where is your brother?) Vinnie knew better than to talk back to her, so off he went back into the cold to find Johnny (who at that time was around 10 years old). After asking some of the neighbors, who all knew Johnny as well as the DiMiceli family routine, he heard that Johnny was last seen headed up to the park. There was a spot in Forest Park famous for its steep hillsides all leading down into a central bowl, known by locals as ‘’the hole.’’ Vinnie had an inkling that Johnny would be there sliding down the freshly powdered slopes, and low and behold, that’s where he found Johnny, smiling and carrying the entire hood of an old Pontiac. When confronted by Vinnie, he just laughed and convinced Vinnie to join him on the hood, flying down the hill twice as fast as any of the other makeshift sleds around them. Later on, Vinnie often took his nephews Steven and Richard sledding at ‘’the hole,’’ but the ride was upgraded to wooden red flyers.

But now back to Vinnie and Francesca. When Vinnie finally got back to his mother’s kitchen with Johnny in toe, now with icicles from his chin as well as from his nose, Francesca asked: ‘’Dove tuo padre?’’ (where’s your father?). Without a moment hesitation, off he went again, knowing exactly where to find Papa. It wasn’t the right day for horse racing, so Vinnie took off for the nearby movie theater (The Astra). He found his father snoring away in the middle of one of his favorite westerns. Since he couldn’t follow the English in most American movies, the cinema was where Salvatore got some of his best shut eye!

Vinnie also looked after his younger sister Maria, walking her to school every day and keeping her safe. Titsi and Zio Antonio had two children, Concetta and Jimmy. Cousin Jimmy, who helped his father at the butcher shop, also helped take care of Vinnie and his sister Marie. Titsi and Zio Antonio lived upstairs when the family lived in Brooklyn. One Christmas, Concetta came over and saw a spark on one of the Christmas tree lights. It turned into a fire and the family had to throw all of the presents out the window to prevent them from burning. Concetta later married Marty Mirrione and they had two children Rosalie and Vinnie. Cousin Jimmy ended up marrying Louise and had two children, Connie and Anthony. One Easter, Zio Antonio fell down the stairs and died. We were all together in Woodhaven celebrating when we got the call.

Another uncle who moved to NY, Zio Vittorio, Francesca's older brother, loved to sing, especially at weddings and parties after drinking too much. He married Zia Rosa and they had two children Sonny and Johnny.

Cousin Vinnie DiMiceli was one of Vinnie's favorite cousins (Vinnie was a popular name – there were 3 different Vinnnie DiMicelis), who ended up moving to Chicago and doing very well in the stock market. He was a member of the Shriner's society. His father Guiseppe was Salvatore's brother and emigrated to the US along with Salvatore. Vinnie had a brother Frank, but they had a fight and ended up staying estranged for most of their adult lives.

1953-55 Korean War

Anyone who spent any time with Vinnie found themselves at one point trapped in the back bedroom, watching the 4 hour VHS documentary on the Korean war with Vinnie’s spirited live commentary. In his later years, Vinnie became more and more fixated on his official status as a ‘’foreign war veteran,’’ despite the fact that he never experienced any actual active warfare in Korea. He began to add VET decals and stickers as well as American flags to all his possessions. In public he often mentioned his VET status to complete strangers, who were caught off guard by his unsolicited sharing and impassioned self-praise. He was especially vocal about his VET status when threatened with a traffic violation (which of course he was always guilty of), even if just a parking ticket. The unsuspecting law enforcer often gave in, fleeing from Vinnie’s patriotic ranting as if escaping from a burning house.

Vinnie’s Korean story changed over the years, becoming more dramatic and dangerous with each telling. Nothing beats the the story of how Vinnie and his platoon actually got out of Korea before the Chinese foot soldiers from Manchuria reached their position. The American strategy was flawed from the beginning and fraught with miscalculations. For example, Vinnie’s platoon was part of the troops responsible for supplying tanks to the northern flank, the next line of defense behind the Marines. After offloading all the tanks, everyone looked around, looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. After the tanks were on the ground, it became painfully obvious that there were no roads for the tanks to travel on! They were in effect virtually useless in the wild terrain of north Korea. Nevertheless, the tanks were lined up together on an incline facing north, ready to fire at any approaching enemies. When the Chinese foot soldiers finally arrived, however, it was in the coldest part of winter, and the first line of American defense was quickly overcome. The marines were defeated in a matter of days. Instead of waiting around for the Chinese troops, Vinnie’s platoon was advised to retreat and evacuate immediately. The trickiest part of the plan was having to take those damn tanks along, which the government didn’t want to leave for the Chinese to pilfer. They loaded the tanks up again, and slowly made their way southwards. At one point, they had to build a temporary bridge to cross the last barrier between north and south Korea, the previous bridge having been blown up by Chinese troops. Vinnie said he had never been so cold and afraid, sleeping in pop up tents with the constant threat of being shot in the middle of the night. When they finally reached a military base in the south and were airlifted to an American base in Japan, the armistice was signed and the fighting came to an end on July 27, 1953. To this day, no peace treaty has ever been signed! So the war veteran Vinnie lucked out and got out by the skin of his teeth, unscathed and only 23 years old! He finished out his remaining military service peacefully in Japan, learning some basic Japanese words and phrases, which from his lips sounded like a prisoner being tortured. Once a month, he received a two-day pass and a coupon for a Japanese bath house (Onsen), where he would go for an overnight stay with one or two other servicemen. He loved the hot baths and would often get a massage as well. It was a great relief from the army base and strict regimen. Sometimes he would go hiking up in the mountains, where there was also an active volcano.

When his two-year military service came to an end, he took a train to the city of Yokohama and boarded a huge carrier to San Francisco. In order to get a few extra perks, he opted to work in the kitchen and spent the entire journey as an egg-breaker. There were some black eggs, so it was important to pay attention to each egg he broke. There were about 10,000 servicemen on board, so he cracked open thousands of eggs every day for 2 weeks!

When the ship approached the famed golden gate, the fog was so thick, you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. All of a sudden, the fog parted enough to see the tops of the bridge, opening up a gap that looked like the entrance to heaven. Vinnie wept as the ship slid silently into the SF bay like a mammoth denizen of the deep! In SF he received a parting gift of 300 bucks and jumped on the first pan am flight to NY, anxious to see his family again. During his time away, he didn't have any communication with them - writing was not one of his strong points!

Upon Vinnie’s return to Brooklyn, the neighborhood had totally changed, all the Italians having left for other parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Luckily for the DiMicelis, the city decided to purchase the house they were renting and offered them 1000 dollars per room to vacate the premises. They used the cash (5000 for their 5 rooms) as a down payment for the three-family house in Woodhaven, Queens and had a new source of income (renting out two of the three floors). Vinnie also scored a job with great benefits at JFK with Pan Am in 1956, allowing him to help the family pay the mortgage for their new home, as well as having the opportunity to visit Cuba before Castro was in power.

Vinnie met Mary, the love of his life, at Roseland, a dance hall in Brooklyn. His first dance was actually with Mary's mother Santa, her chaperone for the night and the better dancer of the two! Once Santa gave the green light, Vinnie was allowed to dance with Mary. It was one of those life-defining moments, and that one dance changed the entire course of his (and Mary's) life. They were like two peas in a pod and adored each other up to the end. They never lost the spark of romance, holding hands when they walked anywhere, enjoying cocktails at sunset, travelling and exploring the world together. Theirs truly was a match made in heaven!

Mary opened her own business STB (Service Training Bureau) with her coworker and bosom buddie Irene, specializing in finding and training personnel to install NCR's customized systems. Her business was efficient and successful, earning her a reputation for service quality in the industry, and allowing her to take an early retirement and to enjoy decades of travel and R&R with Vinnie. Her and Irene's business success also enabled them to buy a beautiful summer house in the Hamptons, a big old red house with a wrap-around porch, right on a bay teaming with clams, mussels and oysters. Every weekend in the summer months, the house was full of friends and family - a blur of smiles, laughter and huge banquets served in the large dining room, big enough to seat 30 people. There was an endless stream of trays with clams in all forms, baked, raw, stuffed, rockefeller. There was also the warm and cozy red room, the green room and the map room, which had a round table always covered with a puzzle in progress. On the wrap around porch, there were big wooden rocking chairs facing the bay, perfect for cocktails at sunset. Another highlight in the house was one of the bedrooms upstairs, with two big sleigh beds, waiting to be pulled by Santa's reindeer over the rooftops of eastern Long Island.

After retiring early, Mary and Vinnie divided their time between New York, Florida (where they bought a condo in Coconut Creek), and "on the road." They bought a souped-up van and enjoyed cocktails at sunset all around the country. Some of their favorite destinations were Vermont in the fall for the changing of the leaves, the red rocks of Sedona in Arizona, Lake Tahoe in the summer, and spending time with their family and many friends.

As he got older, Vinnie dispensed with all pleasantries - he knew exactly what he wanted and wouldn't settle for any less. He hardly ever said please or thank you, and came across as impossibly demanding and petulant, like a child. He liked his food and coffee very hot, his toast crispy, and he was very rarely impressed by anything served to him. When he did like something (or someone), however, he was very vocal and expressed his praise with the passion of a scene from a Verdi opera. He was spoiled as a child by his mother Francesca, who was the posterchild for Sicilian motherhood - providing him and the family with an endless array of mouth-watering Sicilian food, cleaning the house and doing his laundry. His second wife Mary took over the role of caretaker from Francesca, taking care of all his domestic needs until her health declined in the last few years of her life. Mary was an amazing creative cook, a natural born master chef, and spoiled Vinnie's taste for anyone else's cooking.

In the last few years of Mary's life, as her leukemia steadily progressed, Vinnie slowly took over the household, caring for Mary until the end. At the age of 89, he finally learned how to cook and clean, and was surprisingly adept at providing the basics for them both. He changed Mary's bandages, cared for her wounds and constant abrasions, washed her, lifted her in and out of bed (truly a miracle that he was able to manage that!) and took her back and forth to the hospital countless times. He was Mary's guardian angel, just as Mary was to him for all the 50+ years they were together.

At heart, Vinnie was a free spirit. He loved an adventure and was always up for exploring something new, following the trail of the wild goose, just like in his favorite Frankie Laine song!

My heart knows what the wild goose knows

And I must go where the wild goose goes

Wild goose, brother goose, which is best?

A wandering fool or a heart at rest?

(Frankie Laine, The Call of the Wild Goose)