Siragusa, Frank
- Object Type
- Oral history
- Object ID
- 15343
- Date
- June 24 2008
- Description
- Frank Siragusa (1928- ) grew up in uptown Manhattan in an Italian family. He quit school at 16 to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, since his father would not let him join the Navy. Siragusa worked at the Navy Yard for about six months. Before joining the Navy in 1945, Siragusa worked at a cheese factory and the Hotel New Yorker. He served four years in the Army, after which he went back to school on the GI Bill and became a musician and a music teacher. He later lived in Queens, Great Neck, NY and eventually retired and moved to Florida. During his interview, Frank Siragusa (1928- ) remembers his six months working as a painter at the Navy Yard. When he started, he painted pipes using lead paint, which injured his hands. After he recovered, he began working with a trompe l'oeil painter, who could make iron look like wood. He talks about his friendship with this painter, and the two of them discussing philosophy, spirituality and history. Siragusa worked a few other jobs before joining the Navy, including at the Hotel New Yorker, where he saw the plane crash into the Empire State Building in 1945, shortly before he enlisted.
- Related Collection
- Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project
- Subject
- Labor and Yard Workers
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