Maria Perrone, whose family owns and operates the popular Villa Perrone restaurant in Hallandale, died on Friday. She was 78.
Mrs. Perrone immigrated to South Florida in 1964 from Bari, Italy. She and seven of her children came to Florida two years after her husband, Luigi, and oldest son, Domenico, moved here.
“We came seeking a new life and opportunities,” Domenico Perrone said. “We came, felt comfortable and sent for mom and the other kids.”
The Perrones immediately set to work in the restaurant business, working at the Doria Restaurant in Hallandale.
“My dad worked as a cleanup man and I made sauces,” Domenico Perrone said.
The son worked his way up from pizza chef to head sauce-maker. After saving money for several years, father and son mortgaged their homes 20 years ago to buy the now-closed Doria Restaurant.
Since then, the family opened the Pier V restaurants and then the Villa Perrone in 1988, both in Hallandale.
“My mother was very, very proud of our accomplishments. We did it with hard work, no hanky-panky, the legal way,” Domenico Perrone said. “We were a very happy family, and everyone pitched in to help.”
Perrone said he remembers his mother, who lived in Hallandale, as loving children, including her own eight and her 24 grandchildren. “Until the last day, we were all in and out of her house all the time,” he said.
Grandson Louis Perrone, 17, said his grandmother “was there when you needed her, and would do as much as she could for you.”
Mrs. Perrone, whose husband died two years ago, is survived by her mother, Antoinette Lepore, 96, of Bari, Italy; a brother, Domenico, also of Bari; eight children, Domenico of Davie, Frank of Davie, Alfonso of Germany, Rosa Merra of Hallandale, Tina Velluso of Dania, Josephine Penzo of Hollywood, Elvira Dellatorre of Hollywood and Charles of Hallandale; and 24 grandchildren.
Visitation will be today from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at Greaver Funeral Chapel, 201 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale. A rosary service will be held at 8 p.m. Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 123 NW Sixth Ave., Hallandale.
