DeLallo's owner embodied the American Dream

Editor's note: This article was modified Saturday, Nov. 1, 2003, to correct the spelling of Joe Stile's name.

A business that George DeLallo started in a two-car garage, DeLallo's Italian Marketplace is now the largest importer of olives in the United States, boasts an online store and includes the manufacturing of authentic Italian foods.

When George DeLallo started his Italian grocery store on Route 30 near Jeannette in the 1950s, he used to leave the cash box out so customers could make their own change.

The George DeLallo Co. Inc. is now the largest importer of olives in the United States, distributing products bearing its label in 40 states.

George DeLallo, who sold meat and cheese door-to-door in the 1940s, died Wednesday. He was 83.

"If you can ever say anything about the American Dream, he was it," former Jeannette mayor Michael Salvatore said. The friendship between the Salvatore and DeLallo families goes back to the 1940s.

The son of immigrants, George DeLallo did not want to attend college like his four brothers and his sister, said his daughter, Hope DeLallo.

"My grandfather was very strict. To sort of straighten him out, he sent my dad to New York to work with a friend of his in the Italian grocery business for two years," she said.

It would lead him into a career.

After a stint in the Army Air Corps during World War II, George DeLallo returned to Jeannette and began working at Jeannette Importing on Sixth Street.

He would leave to launch his own business.

"He had a truck and would drive to New York to buy from the distributors there. He'd then go door-to-door here," Hope DeLallo said.

In 1954, DeLallo and his wife, Madeleine, bought the property along Route 30 in Hempfield Township and established their Italian grocery store in a two-car garage with a dirt floor. Hope DeLallo was 1 year old; her brother, Francis, now president of the company, was 4.

The family moved in to an old Insulbrick-clad house on the property. The garage/store had no locks or doors, so many of the products were stored in the house.

"Our living room was spaghetti and tomatoes and oil olive," Hope DeLallo said. "My parents used cinder blocks for a bed frame."

An Irwin Bank officer stopped one day to buy groceries, Hope DeLallo said. The store was closed. The DeLallos invited him in for dinner before opening the store so he could shop.

That's the way things were done at George DeLallo's house. He got his first bank loan for the business a short time later with a handshake.

"My dad was a man of integrity. His handshake was his word," Hope DeLallo said.

John Ferrante, 80, of Hempfield Township, moved his business to Route 30 not long after the DeLallos started their store. He opened the Lakeview Lounge a few miles from DeLallo's in 1958.

"Everybody thought we were crazy for coming up to Route 30 because there was nothing up there. There was nothing between the Everglades and Ligonier," he said. A Pizza Hut was built on the land that housed the Everglades, a bar across the street from Ferrante's Lakeview.

Their friendship started in Grapeville. Ferrante owned the Town Tavern on Brown Avenue. DeLallo lived in Grapeville at the time.

DeLallo's business got off to a quick start, he said. "George had an item everybody wanted. Not everyone ate out then."

The DeLallo success story was often held up as an example to children around the dinner table, said Fran Sellitto, who owns and operates the Jeannette dry-cleaning business started by his uncle, Joe Stile.

"You come here, start with nothing and look what you end up with," Sellitto said.

DeLallo and his wife were co-founders of the Dante Alighieri chapter of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, formed in the 1960s to preserve the Italian heritage in the Jeannette area, Joe Stile said.

"He would give the most and expect nothing in return. That's the George I knew," Stile said.

Ferrante said he and DeLallo shared a passion for "tinkering" in their yards, moving dirt around.

"He had a backhoe. I've got a bucket, too," he said. "When you're small, you play with toys. When you get older, you get big-boy toys."

The methods of doing business changed over the intervening 50 years, Hope DeLallo said. The company that started in a dirt floor garage now has an online store where customers may purchase gift baskets and kitchenware.

"My dad never even touched a computer," she said.

The family store on Route 30 today is called DeLallo's Italian Marketplace. The modern-day version of the business also includes the manufacturing of authentic Italian foods.

The family's work ethic hasn't changed. Madeleine DeLallo still works seven days a week at the store, her daughter said.

Through it all, George DeLallo remained a humble, simple man, those who knew him said.

"My dad liked to be with good friends and enjoy people," his daughter said.

Salvatore said DeLallo was a special person who never lost his humility.

"There are no words to describe this gentleman," he said. "This is a tremendous loss."