THE WALL OF FACES

The following is a recap of a loving and heart tugging discussion in the Lackey home with Joe Listorti’s sisters, Mary Jo Lackey and Judy Bokor. The house sits just across the street from Legion Park, which honors Ellwood City veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in wars for the United States. At a second meeting we were joined by good friend Ernie Funari and Mary Jo’s husband, John. An inspirational third conversation with Reverend Pat Polis added to the Joey Listorti story.

Born on November 19, 1946, to Joe and Jenny Listorti, Joseph Listorti was the third of four children. The only boy, sisters Mary Jo and Judy both agreed that “Joey was mom’s favorite.”

Love was loud in the Listorti household. We all fought and yelled as an Italian family, but we all loved each other the sisters explained further.

Mom was a great cook, she had to prepare a variety of meals every time we ate as Joey was a picky eater.

Dad was a hardworking, self-employed stonemason and bricklayer, who was very strict and the definite head of the household. Many times, we kids would do something wrong and dreaded hearing mom say, “wait till dad gets home.”

One time my dad used Joeys car to go to work. Dad asked Joey if he smoked as dad found cigarettes in glove box. Joey blamed it on his friend, and I don’t think he smoked again until he was in the service.

Right before Joey was to go into the service his friends took him out for one last night on the town. When they brought him home, he was a little bit happy. Mom and dad weren’t home, so we got him dressed for bed before mom and dad got home.

As strict as our dad was, we knew he loved us and only wanted the best for us.

We lived in a very close-knit community. All the kids from around the block played together, all ages, boys and girls. We played hide and seek, kick the can, baseball, we were a tight knit group.

My father built the Sons of Italy building and took us there many times. Joey was always curious, and he would often scavenge around the building and find items that the members said had been lost for 20 years; but Joey would find them. Joe Sr. continued the family tradition of taking his grandchildren to the SOI for a Coca Cola.

He was also very curious to figure out how things came apart. Many times, he would dig into mom’s drawers or boxes and find something like a watch and take it apart, but he NEVER put them back together!

Dad bought us all a bike, but it was a girl’s bike so we could all ride it. Joey loved to ride the bike so when he was not riding, he would remove the chain so we couldn’t ride.

Joey was a boy scout.


Ernie Funari, a close friend from their early childhood days, talked about how they both played baseball, but were always on different teams in both Little League and Pony Ball.

Ernie explained one time after one of our Little League games we both wanted to stay around and watch a Pony game. Joey and his dad got into an argument as dad wanted to go home. The argument continued in the car. Joe Sr. got mad, pulled the car over at the Pennzoil Gas Station and told us to get out and start walking. It was raining and we walked home in the rain.

Joey’s love of cars started early as a teen he enjoyed building model cars he purchased at the local hobby store. He graduated to his favorite car, a 53 Buick, Burgundy in color. He took great pride in his car as he made sure to keep up on the washing and waxing.

Ernie told how he, Joey and friends would pile into the Buick and head off to Steeler games. It was a nice car, but the heater did not work. We would all pitch for gas money, it was only 25 cents a gallon at the time. Games were at the old Pitt Stadium, and we paid $1.00 to sit and freeze in the bleachers.

That good old Buick also got us to Pirate games where once again we would pitch in for gas. We would sit in the cheapest seats we could, usually left field bleachers. Sometimes we would sit way up high and as the game progressed, move down into the better seats as no one was there to watch games.

When he went to BVM Catholic school students could “adopt” a child from a different country by donating money for the child’s support. The students “named” the adopted child and Joey named his Cindy, after a friend of a family we were close with. Our families are still very close to this day. Joey would send money to his older sister Phyllis’s children and would carry a picture of the children in his helmet.

Mary Jo, Judy, John and Ernie all had a sparkle in their eyes when they talked how much fun they had at the Sons of Italy dances and going to the Parkstown Bowling Alley.

Joey was an immaculate dresser and good-looking guy. Everyone liked him. Joey did not marry before going to Vietnam.

He was very kindhearted, and everyone loved him. A good friend, Bill Garrigus, who was in the service with Joe, tells Mary Jo and he can still see his face to this day. Bill still maintains contact with the family.

Douglas Gundermann posted on 11-7-2008 on the Virtual Vietnam Memorial web site: “What a great guy with a wonderful sense of humor. Not many days go by that I don’t think about him and his family. I was his squad leader until I was wounded in December 1966.” Doug phones and visits often.

Sandy Boyer posted on 3-17-2002. “I remember Joe with great fondness! His smile, great sense of humor and the fun time we all had at the S.O.I. (Sons of Italy) dances.”

Mary Joe shared the 1963 Lincoln High School Yearbook signed by many of Joe’s friends.

Joe was a very accomplished baseball player. Left-handed, he played both first base and was a pitcher. His Sons of Italy 1961 team won the championship.

Joe and Ernie played together on the Ellwood City High School 1962 WPIAL Championship team.

Ernie added, we walked everywhere as kids and even while on the high school baseball team. We would change in the school gym and walk over to the field for practice. No one had a car. We had to be there by 4:00 pm so we had to hustle.

On the way home we would stop at the 1st Street Bakery to see if they had any day-old donuts they wanted to give away. Or as John added, sometimes we would buy them for a penny.

Everyone in our family had a solid work ethic. As kids we would run errands for neighbors. Joey worked as a laborer, laying brick on weekends during high school and worked at the Firestone Tire store.

After High School graduation Joey attended Penn State Beaver in the evening while still working as a labor during the day. Many times, he would rush home from work, meet us in New Brighton for supper and then off to school.

His professor saw something special in Joey and arranged an interview for him with the well-known Michael Baker Construction Company. He went to a Baker Christmas party and was offered a job by Michael Baker. Joey turned it down as he said he didn’t want to build bridges but wanted to be an architect and design buildings. The family has kept the invitation for the Christmas Party.

His life changed abruptly with the draft for the Vietnam war. Ernie Funari also served as he was drafted. A month older than Joey, we drove together. The day when he went for his physical, I was inducted into the Army. That was the last time I saw him.

Joey decided to take a chance on getting drafted and he was drafted into the Marines.

Joe Sr took his son and a friend, Pat Polis (now a Reverend) to the bus station in New Castle. “We rode the Greyhound bus to Pittsburgh, Gateway Center and sat there all morning long” explained Reverend Polis. “We had to even ask permission to go to the bathroom.”

“There were about 40 of us there. All of a sudden, this army Sargent walked in, and told everyone to pay attention. He said when I call your name, I want you to get up and move to the other side of the room.” The Reverend continued.

One of the names he called was Joey’s. “When he was done calling out the names he just walked out. The Marine Gunnery Sargent walked in. He looked at the guys whose names were called out and said, ‘welcome to the Marine Core’. Joey and I looked at each other and he started using some Italian language!! That is how Joey got into the Marines. I have no idea how they selected men for the Marines. That is the last time I saw him.”

“Those of us who were in the Army were put on a train to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Joey went to Camp Lejeune.”

Reverend Dr. Pat Polis served eight years active duty in the Army, being drafted as a private and discharged as a captain. He served two tours in Vietnam. Following the military, he worked 17 years in business management and 28 years in pastoral ministry. He is now a church consultant, an author, a radio talk show host and the president of Vietnam Veterans chapter 1078 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mary Joe shared a photo from the Selective Service office the day he was signed in. Joey wearing his Ellwood City letter jacket with Pat Polis to his left.

Reverend Polis said they grew up and knew each other all thru High School. He was a very funny, unassuming person. The All-American guy you wanted to be around. Also, a very Italian looking young man with a studious face. He didn’t have any enemies and was a friend to everyone. We were all basically cut from the same mold back then.

According to Mary Jo and Judy, many people are not aware there were young men who were drafted, as opposed to enlisting in the Marines back in 1965.

Mary Jo shared a photo titled “The Hard Core, 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines. In the photo were Bobby Murphy, Joey Listorti, Jubasz, Billy Tarnowski.

Joey was wounded in April 1967. A sergeant showed up at the Listorti home to deliver the news. Mary Jo came to learn enough about military procedures to know that when a soldier is wounded, the news is delivered by a non-commissioned officer.

On Monday August 14 around 6:00 in the morning there was a knock on the front door. This time the visitor was a Major. “When he said, ‘I’m a Major’ . . .” Mary said she knew my brother was dead. Joey had died two days earlier, Saturday, August 12.

Joey had his DOD (Date of Departure) papers and was scheduled to leave the county, Sunday, August 13 at 12:01 am. He was a short timer. His platoon was sent on patrol the night before he was to come home, and he was killed at 10:30 pm. Just 90 minutes before he was supposed to leave the county!

The funeral was held in Ellwood City. The owner of a local gravestone company had purchased a section of a column from the U.S. Capitol. The section had been removed during renovations. The piece from the Capitol was made into the memorial stone for Joey. It stands in the Locust Grove Cemetery just outside of town. Both of Joey’s parents, Joe Sr. and Jennie are buried beside him.

Ernie was still in Vietnam when Joey was killed. The way he found out was from a story in Stars and Stripes. Other people had known but did not tell him.

When Ernie returned to Ellwood City, he could not bring himself to walk past the Listorti family home. He became a mailman and when he would deliver mail to the house, he could not even look the family in the eye, as he would hang his head.

He missed Joey so much and hurt so bad. He is now able to visit and talk with the family, but it took some time to heal.

Reverend Polis was serving on the DMZ zone in Korea when Joey was killed. “I got a letter from home my parents sent me a newspaper clipping that he had been killed. We were in the middle of an exercise when I opened the letter. The newspaper clipping fell out and I can still remember where I was standing when I opened that letter” he added. “I can still see his face and hear his voice. It will always be there.”

He added, people in Ellwood City treated us right when we got home from Nam. You couldn’t buy a drink anywhere. I will never forget that.

To this day, Mary Jo wears a Remembrance Bracelet in honor of her brother Joey.

A Memorial is located in Legion Park just across the street from the Lackey home. The memorial honors all the Ellwood City men who were killed in Vietnam.

A Rubbing from the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington DC hangs in the Lackey home hallway.

Mary Jo and Judy both still deeply miss their brother who they love with all their hearts. While he may not be with us, he is in heaven in a much better place. They both look forward to the day when they are reunited with Joey, their parents, Joe Sr and Jennie and their oldest sibling, Phyllis.

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. We should be forever thankful for the sacrifices of you and so many others to ensure the freedoms we so often take for granted.

Joey's Dad took us to the bus station in New Castle for the trip to Pittsburgh and the induction center. We were both drafted. They separated us into 2 groups and Joey was put in the group that was the Marine Corps. That's the last day that I saw him.

Dear Lcpl Joseph Listorti, Thank you for your service as a Rifleman. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. Today is the 245th anniversary of Lexington & Concord. The time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage, guidance and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

50 years ago you sacrificed your life for this country. Something most of us cannot imagine. Your sisters miss you. My heart aches for my mother and the pain she still endures.

I will miss never getting the chance to meet you. Your sister will miss never having the chance to see you again.

50 years ago a mother and father were devastated by the loss of their only son. We will never forget you.