Rudy Lamagna grew up selling pasta, cheese and other foods from the back of a truck on the streets of Mt. Washington, Sewickley and other neighborhoods.
He worked with his father at the what is now Lamagna Cheese Company Inc., a business which John Lamagna founded in 1928.
Rudolph S. Lamagna died at his home in Hampton Township on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2002. He was 72.
The company is a family business and employs all four of Rudy Lamagna's sons.
The business produces 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of cheeses daily, including ricotta, mozzarella, provolone and feta. It distributes products as far south as Florida and as far west as Illinois.
"He wanted a family business," his son, Rudy Lamagna Jr., said. "He always believed the American dream can work."
Born in Bloomfield, Mr. Lamagna was the son of Italian immigrants John and Maria Lamagna. He graduated from Penn Hills High School and served in the Army during the Korean War. After the war, he worked for three years as a welder for U.S. Steel.
Mr. Lamagna got back into the cheese business more actively by making ricotta cheese in a garage at his family's home in Penn Hills. He expanded to a larger facility in Verona in 1969, and the company moved to its current 70,000-square-foot plant in 1979.
Mr. Lamagna retired from the business about 20 years ago.
Some of his pastimes were trap and skeet shooting, fishing, operating heavy equipment and real estate development. He also enjoyed winter trips to Florida with his wife, Mary.
"When he retired, he just couldn't sit still," his son said. "He had to be doing something constructive, whether it be making cheese or construction."
He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Helen Lamagna; and brothers, Alfonso and Ben Lamagna.
Mr. Lamagna is survived by his wife, Mary McCallum Lamagna; four sons, Michael Lamagna, of McCandless; Rudy Lamagna Jr., of Hampton, Kirk Lamagna, of Richland, and Chris Lamagna, of Gibsonia; a daughter, Lisa Feraco, of East Long Meadow, Mass.; a sister, Michelina Dongarra, of Sicily; a brother, Attilio Lamagna, of Dorseyville; and 14 grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today at the Herbert R. King Jr. Funeral Home Inc., 2841 Woodland Circle, Hampton. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Hampton. Interment in the church's Assumption Cemetery.
