Ferdinando

He was called "Keg" by his family, or Uncle Nandi by his nieces and nephews. Daddy had a beautiful voice and loved to sing. He was crushed when later in life, after his stroke, he was unable to sing anymore.

This was taken in Texas while Daddy was in training during WW I when he was about 31. He remembers Texas as being very cold. He was there during the Spanish Flu epidemic when so many died. He told stories of how the the soldiers were so sick they seemed dead and the army waited a little longer than usual to bury them to make sure they were really dead.

When the family all moved to Los Angeles he opened his own artists' supply store, where he eventually manufactured his own paints. He moved into larger quarters around 1935, during the Depression. During this time, Daddy kept many an artist working by taking paintings in trade for supplies or he would buy their paintings so they had money for food and rent.

Daddy designed his own labels. The labels above are just a sampling of what he did. He was an artist at heart and loved to make beautiful things. As a young man he had his own sign painting business.

He loved his brushes and showed us how to respect the work that went into making them and how to take care of them.

He also did gold leaf art, which he learned from his father, once doing the inside of the beautiful theater at the Casino on Catalina Island.

This catalog was a gift to Carol from Cousin Vinny.

From bottom to top: F.C. Marzo, my dad; A.L. Marzo, Uncle Dolph, his brother; Eugene Marzo, their father; Antone Marzo, their uncle. The rest must be uncles or grandparents.

The Marzo men were artists. Every spring when the snow melted enough, they went down the Alps to France where they did decorative painting in the houses and on the furniture. Agnes remembers seeing a pretty chair that Grandpa had painted. Grandpa Marzo had a brother, Antone, who studied art and mainly painted fruit and flowers. He lived in Lyons, France and he exhibited his work in many art galleries in France, making a good living for his family of two children. When Ferdinando and Athleen got married he sent over a still life of roses and cherries that he had painted.