Jennie (Guarino) Parker (1911 - 2010)

Born 17 Feb 1911 in Manhattan, New York, New York

Ancestors

Wife of John Joseph (Piranio) Parker Sr. — married 7 Apr 1934 in Manhattan, New York, New York

Descendants

Died 22 May 2010 at age 99 in Camarillo, California

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Martin Parker [send private message]

Biography

Jennie Guarino was baptized Giovannina; however she used the anglicized name of Jennie all her life. In a court order issued in New York City in 1942, her given name was formerly changed to Jennie at the same time her married name was changed from Piranio to Parker.

Jennie was the third child of Anntonetta (aka, Antoinette) La Greca and Antonio Guarino. Her two older siblings were Jefferson and Anna. Antonio died when Jennie was two months old. Subsequently, approximately three years later, Anntonetta remarried; her second husband was Pasquale Franco. Anntonetta and Pasquale had two boys: Alfred and Enrico (aka, "Harry").

Jennie was a feminist long before that term came into existence. Before her marriage to John (Piranio) Parker, she was the quintessential shopgirl. She was introduced to her husband-to-be by Theresa ("Tessie") Valentino. In the custom of the immigrant Italian community, Tessie would chaperone Jennie and John when they met in Tessie's apartment.

Again, in the custom of the Italian community of that time, Jennie was not allowed to marry until Anna, her older sister, was married. Moreover, there was a certain snobbishness within the Italian community; Pasquale initially objected to Jennie being courted by John because he (John) was Sicilian.

John and Jennie were married by the City Clerk of New York City on April 7, 1934. They did this to ensure that their marriage was legal. However, they were not married in the eyes of their families (and community) and the Catholic Church until their nuptials on June 3, 1935 in Mount Carmel Church. (See the PDF file of their wedding invitation attached to this profile.) John and Jennie did not live together as husband and wife until they were married in church.

As a side note, Tessie Valentino was described to me as a cousin; however, I don't know at this point if she was a blood relative, related through marriage or simply part of an extended family. Valentino was her married name. Tessie was my godmother.

Jennie was educated through the ninth grade. She told me that this was unusual for a girl in the immigrant community of that time. (As a point of comparison, her husband, John, only completed the sixth grade.) This was the driving force behind her insistence that her children obtain a college education.

John moved his family to Los Angeles in 1944. Jennie never had a high regard for L.A. She always compared it unfavorably to New York City. Absence from her close knit family was part of the reason. Her view of Los Angeles took a more favorable turn after her mother and siblings moved to Los Angles in the late 1950s.

Like many women of her generation, she never worked again after she was married. She was the money manager in our family, which prepared her to largely manage her own financial affairs after John's death. Nor did she ever learn to drive. After John's death in 1975, Jennie traveled all over the greater Los Angeles area by public transportation. She knew bus schedules like the back of her hand. She continued to live in the apartment in Hollywood, California, that she had shared with John, for another 25 years. She kept busy, in part, by volunteering at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital -- a grandmotherly "candy striper". In 1999, at age 88, she moved to Camarillo (Ventura County) at the behest of her grandchildren -- and because she had been mugged in Hollywood. She was not a happy camper. She regarded Camarillo as a one-horse town. Despite closer proximity to family, the lack of convenient public transportation irked her until the day she died in 2010.

Parker-19440 18:08, 23 April 2016 (EDT) Martin Parker

Sources

• Martin Parker, Jennie's son.

• "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24DG-G46 : accessed 14 April 2016), John Piranio and Giovannina Guarino, 07 Apr 1934; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,684,966.
• https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24DG-G4N "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24DG-G4N : 21 June 2023), John Piranio and Giovannina Guarino, 1934.

• https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:735G-V46Z "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:735G-V46Z : 13 June 2023), Jennie Parker, ; Burial, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Forest Lawn Memorial Park; citing record ID 193186690, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JTKT-MTG : 12 January 2021), Jennie Parker, 22 May 2010; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).