In the year 1913, two immigrants from Italy met, married and started a most beautiful family in America. Pasquale Rizzo, from Zungoli and Maria Rosa Corbo, from Rocchetta Sant'Antonio met in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Together they had 4 sons; Giuseppe (1914), Angelo Antonio (1915), Pasquale (1917), and Michele (1919). Sadly, this humble carpenter had barely started this life in the new world when he fell victim to the flu epidemic of 1918. He was 30 years old. His wife "Rose" had not yet delivered their fourth son. Two years later Rose remarried Gaetano Naclerio (from Agerola, Italy) and moved to 772 E. Sixth St. South Boston, Mass. where two more children, John (1922) and Rose (1924) added to the family. This is the beginning of the story for Angelo Antonio Rizzo.

His last name was "Americanized" into Ritz and he was always called Tony.

Tony left school in 1929 to go to work to help support the family. Starting with a job as a mailroom clerk at Walworth's Manufacturing Co., and then jobs with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel (Boston), Metropolitan Transit Authority (streetcar operator), a hitch in the U.S. Navy and finally a 33 year career with the U.S. Postal Service, Tony wore many different uniforms in his life. He met his wife Anne Cassis in 1935 and they were married in 1940.


Relocating in 1948 to Arizona for Anne's health, Tony, Anne, and children Tony (1941), Robert (1943) and Patricia (1946) made Phoenix their new home. Four more children completed the family; Elizabeth (1953), Patrick (1956) and the twins, Jeanne and Joseph (1957).

For 30 years they lived at 11 E. Ashland Ave. Tony, widowed since 1984, lived in Scottsdale, Az. with all of his children still in Arizona, except Elizabeth, who passed away in 1988. Sadly, Tony passed away in 2007, a short 6 days shy of his 92nd birthday. He will be greatly missed but, we all take great comfort in knowing that he has now rejoined Anne in heaven.

This is his legacy, his dynasty, his family.