Concetta Pompilio Neale's Obituary
Concetta Pompilio Neale, almost 96, of Clairemont, San Diego, California, rode a rainbow to heaven on Monday, February 18, 2019. Concetta was born in Fiume, Italy on April 14, 1923 to Maria and Vincenzo Pompilio. Vincenzo was an Italian Navy officer stationed in the Principality of Fiume just prior to being annexed by Mussolini in 1924.
Concetta (Connie) was married to Louis (Lou) Henry Neale on January 1, 1947. She met Lou, an American GI, and fell in love with the love of her life in a small town of Ponte a Egola, near Florence, Italy during WWII.
Destiny brought them together. Lou, as was his custom, would hand out chocolates to the children in the villages he passed thru. He would trade his ration of cigarettes for treats from the other GI’s. As a lifelong athlete and long distance runner, he had no use for his ration of cigarettes except to put them to good use. While handing out chocolates in Ponte a Egola, he happened to look up and, in the balcony above stood Concetta holding a baby that she was babysitting. Lou motioned her to come down and she turned to her mother and said “a crazy American is handing out chocolates and is motioning to come down.” Her mother looked at her and said, “What are you waiting for? Go down and get some!” While Lou didn’t speak Italian, Concetta had learned English in school after switching from French and as the saying goes, “the rest is history.”
Like many from the “Greatest Generation”, Concetta was shaped by the “Great War”. In order to attend University, she would ride a bicycle from her home in Ponte a Egola to the University of Florence, a distance of 27 miles thru some of the most hotly contested war zones in Tuscany. This adversity didn’t prevent Concetta from graduating with a degree in Latin.
Lou was a career soldier and his career took Concetta all over the world, including, Frankfurt and Heidelberg, Germany; Rome, Italy; Hopewell, Virginia; Yuma, Arizona; Carmel By the Sea, California; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Pacific Grove, California, Carmel Valley, California and finally, San Diego, California. As tumultuous as constantly moving was, Concetta always quickly and lovingly turned each new house into a home no matter the challenges or obstacles.
Concetta was a professor of Italian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Concetta was a devoted wife and mother, had a great passion for caring for her family and was an accomplished tennis player. She remained very close to her younger sister in Italy, Laura Pompilio Bruni and Laura’s family. You didn’t have to be family to be considered like one by Concetta. A generation of children from close family friends grew up calling Concetta, “Aunt Connie.”
Concetta was predeceased by her loving husband, Lou, in 1995, and by her father, Vincenzo Pompilio, and her mother, Maria Korotancnick Pompilio. Concetta’s life will continued to be celebrated by her extensive family:
Her Sons: George, Paul, Roger and Bill (deceased);
Her Daughters by Marriage: Madeleine and Sigi;
Her Grandsons: Chad and wife Mayuree, Sean and wife Momoko, Michael and wife Makiko, and Jackie;
Her Granddaughters: Debbie and husband Leonard, and Noelani (Tami) and husband Walter, and Belinda;
Her Great Grandchildren: Benjamin, Blake, Syrianna, Fabianna, and Milo; Dianna; Maika’I; Noelani and Kle; Mathew, Heather Lee, Zachery, Taylor and Joshua (deceased);
Her Nieces & Nephews: Alessandro and Francesco; Anne and Kim; John, Linda, Joan, DeAnna, and Kathleen;
Her Great-Nieces & Nephews: Beatrice, Jacopo, Marianna, Andrea, and Margherita; Arturo and Irene.
Please visit the Clairemont Mortuary website, www.clairemontmortuary.com, to share with friends and family any special stories of your time with Connie and Lou.
A Celebration of Life Service will be held at the Saint Mary Magdalene Church, on March 16, 2019, at 11:00 am. Address: 1945 Illion Street San Diego, California 92110
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