Luigi Fragassi

Luigi Fragassi

AGE: 86 • South Plainfield

Luigi Fragassi, 86, of South Plainfield, passed away at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset surrounded by his loved ones after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

The Funeral Mass is on Tuesday June 23, 2015 at 10AM at the Church of the Sacred Heart, 149 South Plainfield Avenue, South Plainfield. Interment will follow in Holy Redeemer Cemetery Mausoleum. Family and friends will be received on Monday June 22nd from 2 to 4 pm and 7 to 9 pm at McCriskin-Gustafson Funeral Home at 2425 Plainfield Avenue, South Plainfield.

Luigi was born the third oldest of six children in Grognoleto, Teramo Italy, on April 12, 1929. He grew up in Monterotondo in the Province of Rome, and served as a Bersagliere in the Italian Army. He worked from a young age as a mason until he married his life-long love, Iole (née Poletti), in 1964 and moved to Bound Brook to be with her and her family. Luigi continued to work as a mason and was a proud member of the Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen Local #15 in New Brunswick. He embarked on a successful business partnership with his wife's brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe Poletti, starting in the mid-1970s when he became the proprietor of the New Route 27 Car Wash in Metuchen, and as a partner in the Beacon Manor Hotel in Point Pleasant Beach, and the Willows restaurant in Greenbrook. Luigi managed and worked at the car wash for 32 years until it was sold in 2004 and he retired. He often worked diligently at the other family businesses, including Mom's Restaurant in Edison until it closed in 1998, and the Beacon Manor Hotel during the 1980s.

Luigi was a devoted husband, father, uncle, brother, son, and friend. He had been a hard worker his entire life, first providing for his family as a teenager after his father died during World War II. He was an avid gardener, and his botanical creations were displayed at the car wash for many years. He was an enthusiastic sports fan, who followed the Italia National Soccer Team and AS Roma, the Mets, Giants, Rangers, Knicks, and Formula 1 Racing, often waking in the wee hours of the morning to watch the races in distant parts of the world. His greatest joy was providing for and spending time with his family, many of whom also worked alongside him, and whom he loved dearly and cared for every day of his life.

Luigi was predeceased by his parents Giovaccino and Guiseppina, brother Vincenzo and his wife Angela, brother Umberto and his wife Zara, nephew Amedeo, and several brothers-in-law.

He was the beloved husband of 50 years to Iole; loving father to Maria Santangelo and her husband Stephen, and Roberto and his wife Linda; loving and cherished grandfather to Maximilian, Xavier, Alexander, and Juliana; dear brother of sisters Ida, Costanza, and Lucia in Italy; dedicated brother-in-law to Tony Poletti, Joe Poletti and his companion Linda Johns, and Anna Caruso; loving uncle to Johnny and Joseph Caruso and their families and numerous nieces and nephews in Italy; and dear cousin to Iliana Airo and her family.

Donations may made in loving memory of Luigi to the Alzheimer's Association, www.alz.org, to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, www.stjude.org, or to the South Plainfield Rescue Squad, http://southplainfieldems.org/donations/.