Robert Benedict Landre

Born Roberto Benedetto Landerghini, August 10 in New York, NY. died December 23, 2008, Seattle, WA.  Son of Ismale Landerghini and Eliza Cerutti Landerghini, immigrants from Bergantino in northern Italy.

Bob Landre grew up in NYC and worked in his parents’ Italian grocery store where he claims he could slice prosciutto with a knife as thinly as a machine cutter.  He played jazz on the saxophone and clarinet, and worked as an errand boy on Wall Street before becoming a ribbon salesman.  He sold ribbons in New England as well as New York and remembers selling at Filene’s in Boston.  During the depression, he always sent money home to his parents.  Some of his escapades as a student included hooking a ride on the back of a truck while roller skating across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Later, he was offered the western states territory to sell costume jewelry.  He recounts his experience flying across the country in the 1930s when flight attendants were registered nurses.  He traveled throughout the states west of the Rockies and settled in Los Angeles.  He met his wife, Margaret Christine Fox, in Los Angeles in the early 1940s.  They married and had three children.  In 1949, he purchased a home on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, where he and his wife raised their children, Elissa (married to Bill Giezentanner now of Natick, MA), Carole (married to Steve Howard) grandson Michael and great grandchildren Charlotte and Nathaniel and Robert Jr. and his partner, Blake Hampton. Niece, Susanne Landerghini Boehm, daughter of Bob’s brother Gene, lives in Falls Church, VA.

Bob Landre was known as a “people person,” a story teller, an inveterate salesman who continued to sell until his late 80’s, He enjoyed northern Italian food, opera, speaking Spanish and Italian, the art of the deal and providing for his family. Bob was loved and will be remembered for his great smile and sense of humor.

He lived the last years of his life at the Kenney in West Seattle where hospice support provided comfort. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Highline Home Health and Hospice, 12844 Military Road South, Tukwila, WA 98168 or the local hospice of your choice.




 
Published in the West Seattle Herald January 21, 2009.