James "Jim" Dan Berardi

Public school educator, accordionist extraordinaire, and most beloved father and grandfather, James (“Jim”) Dan Berardi of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, died of pneumonia at age 96 on January 6, 2023, in Raleigh, North Carolina, just one month shy of his 97th birthday. He was surrounded by his family. Until his brief final illness, Jim lived a fully independent life in his own home. He was born on February 5, 1926, in Campbell, Ohio, the youngest of six children born to Italian immigrants Luigi Berardi (1875-1951) and Filomena DiFrangia Berardi (1884-1968), both natives of the hill town of Carovilli, Isernia, Molise. Jim grew up in a big family which included, in addition to his own brother and sisters, a constant stream of foster siblings whom his parents took in during the depression years when their own families couldn’t take care of them. His parents ran a corner grocery store at 72 12th Street in Campbell, the Berardi Food Market, and the family lived above the store, planted a huge vegetable garden on an adjacent lot, and kept chickens. There was always plenty of food in the meanest of times so they were able to share. The market stocked all sorts of necessities, had a butcher, and sold Italian specialty items like dried cod in barrels and Pecorino Romano cheese which stank to high heaven. Jim often served as delivery boy, and he recalled making regular trips to a large house where many exceptionally beautiful women lived, who were always so kind to him, and gave him large tips. Only much later did he learn the customers were denizens of one of Campbell’s most popular brothels! In general, Campbell was a raucous place to grow up, with immigrants of every stripe (Italians, Greeks, Slovaks, Croatians, Poles) flocking there to find ready work in the steel mills. Being surrounded by constant activity, many different types of people, music, food, and conflations of cultures, provided Jim with a solid roadmap to navigate the world. He was able to get along with everyone, light up a room, and entertain with effortless confidence. His “happy childhood” as he called it set the stage for the rest of his long life, and his professional interest in Social Sciences. Music was an important part of Jim’s life from an early age. Everyone in the family knew how to play piano, and Jim took accordion lessons from “an old Italian guy.” There was also music at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church where the Berardi family was heavily involved. Jim served as an altar boy and loved to recount the story of having been asked one Sunday to murder St. Lucy. When a member of the church fancied himself a sculptor and created a hideous effigy of the saint in solid concrete which he installed beside the church’s front door, the parish priest clandestinely asked Jim and a second altar boy to “make her go away.” Under the cover of night, young Jim and his friend “put the hit on St. Lucy” quite literally, dragging her into the grocery wagon and then taking sledgehammers to her at the dump. Jim was a natural athlete and loved all sorts of sports, especially football. At Campbell Memorial High School, he distinguished himself as the Memorial Bulldogs’ center on the varsity football team, and in 1943 was named to WKBN All-County Football’s First Team. His love of the game was lifelong. But his interests were also numerous and varied. He belonged to the Aeronautics Club, the Orchestra, Hi-Y, Senior Play, and was Class Treasurer. At the time of his graduation on June 8, 1944, Jim’s classmates voted him “Most Popular Boy” and “Best Personality,” noting “Jimmy was good at dancing, / He also likes romancing!” Four days after graduating from high school, 18-year-old Jim was drafted into World War II. In the Pacific Theater of Operations, he served in the Marine Corps’ 4th Division, 25th Regiment, First Battalion, Company C. He saw combat for three days at Iwo Jima, one of the most horrific battles of the war, between February 25 and March 2, 1945. It was an experience he rarely spoke about until very late in life when, as one of the few surviving veterans of that awful event, he ¬¬was both interviewed about his experiences and honored for his service. In Rocky Mount he gave an extensive two-part radio interview as part of Grace Notes on June 3, 2020 (Life 103.1). As a member of the Flight of Heroes, he was flown to Washington, DC for a ceremony honoring his service. On October 27, 2017, Jim was saluted at the North Carolina Hurricanes’ hockey game for his service and presented with a commemorative flag. When 20-year-old Jim returned home after the war in June 1946, two of his sisters astutely recognized, in those days before PTSD was anything anyone diagnosed, that their brother badly needed a positive focus and whisked him off to Mexico. Over the summer, he had a respite in Mexico City, where he enrolled in the National University of Mexico, and took language, culture and dancing courses. He impressively mastered the challenging Old man’s dance and Mexican hat dance, where his dance partner was an oil magnate/ambassador’s daughter, and sometimes his sister Jennie. Once back in Campbell, he and Jennie annually performed the traditional Mexican dances (Bailes Tipicos) for charitable events. Jim dancing in his snazzy black and white costume and massive sombrero was a fixture of his daughters’ childhood. On the GI bill, Jim enrolled in Youngstown College [later Youngstown State University], graduating August 20, 1949, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, majoring in Social Science and minoring in Physical Education. In the Fall of 1949, he began his 35-year career as an educator teaching junior high in his hometown. A year later, in September 1950, 24-year-old Jim was hired to teach World History and Civics at Hubbard High School in nearby Hubbard, Ohio, where he also served as assistant varsity football coach under head coach Dick Sonntag. The Sonntag-Berardi duo built a winning team for Hubbard, and in the classroom, Jim was one of the most popular teachers. Unfortunately, Jim’s tenure as coach ended at the conclusion of the 1952 season when his coaching contract was not renewed, a casualty of administrative nepotism. In an astonishing show of support, the Hubbard students went on strike—some 800 of them—and a news story bearing the headline “Striking Students Chant Call for Berardi” together with a photo of the strikers was trumpeted across the front page of the Youngstown Vindicator on April 22, 1952. Although Jim gracefully stepped aside from coaching, he continued to teach in Hubbard through the Spring of 1957, and channeled his love of football into years of announcing high school games in the region. While teaching in Hubbard, Jim met his future wife of 52 years, Anne Louise Nemetz of Sharon, Pennsylvania, at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania where they both earned Master of Science degrees in Education (she taught at Brookfield High School and later at Hubbard). They married on June 19, 1954, at St. Ann Church in Farrell, Pennsylvania, and honeymooned in Acapulco. They settled in Hubbard, where they raised their three daughters. To earn extra money to buy their first house, Jim moonlighted at Youngstown Sheet and Tube, cleaning the open-hearth furnaces at night, recalling that even though they had been cooled, he often felt the residual heat through the soles of his shoes. In September 1957, Jim went to work in the Youngstown City School system where there were more opportunities. From September 1957 to June 1974, he served on the faculty of South High School, where he taught Social Sciences until 1972 when he switched to guidance counseling. The period was one of intense national civil and racial unrest, and in his role as counselor he saw these effects up close. There were frequent riots, and also strikes by the teacher’s union which he headed for a stressful period during his tenure there. While at South High, Jim moonlighted a few times a week at his brother Tony’s pharmacy, Chaney Drug, in Youngstown in order to save up for a larger home as well as his daughters’ college educations. In 1965, he and Anne purchased a new house on Palmetto Drive in the recent Golf View Heights development in Hubbard. With a nice golf course located right at the end of the street, Jim soon became an avid golfer, embracing a sport which remained a passion for the rest of his life. He and a group of teachers from the Youngstown Schools formed a fast friendship centering on golf, but extending into fishing excursions, beer, and restaurant hopping. They called themselves the MOPS and the origin of that name remains a mystery. In the Fall of 1974, Jim joined the faculty of Woodrow Wilson High School, where he served as a guidance counselor until his retirement in 1984. Since as high school teachers they both had the summers off, Jim and Anne continued their own families’ traditions of planting vast vegetable and flower gardens, with their daughters. They also faithfully took their daughters on vacations all over the United States, making sure to visit every museum and historical marker from coast to coast. During the early years of his retirement, Jim pushed his enthusiasm for meticulously maintaining his own yard to an entirely new level by taking a job as landscapist at the Youngstown Country Club. In this role he was able to manicure lawns, trees and shrubbery with all the fanaticism of someone who worked at Louis XIV’s Versailles. He loved it and would periodically take the family to the Club to show off his handiwork. Following Anne’s retirement in 1990, Jim and Anne moved to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, which they had gotten to know while visiting their daughter Suzanne who was living there. The warm weather, proximity to the ocean, and friendly people attracted them. Jim quickly made friends with John Lelekacs, and neighbors Glenn Medlin and Cora Lee Gold, with members of the local Kiwanis Club and Marines, with fellow golfers, and of course by playing his accordion around town for various organizations and retirement homes. He would pepper his musical “gigs” with jokes just this side of raunchy, which delighted everyone. He kept his resume of appearances chronicled on the legs and seat of a wooden stool where he sat to perform and transported his mini accordion to each event in a 12-pack Stroh’s beer box. During the last years of his life, Jim received enormous pleasure visiting Topsail Island where he befriended his daughter Nancy (harmonica) and son-in-law Bob’s many musical friends. He would often play his accordion at the Second Row and kick up his heels with a willing group of enthusiastic partners. Jim is survived by his three daughters: Marianne Berardi of Cleveland Heights, Ohio (Henry Adams); Suzanne Berardi Gould of Raleigh, North Carolina (Lawrence Gould); and Nancy Berardi Rankl of Cary, North Carolina (Robert Rankl). He is also survived by his grandsons Daniel Robert Rankl, Thomas James Adams, Noah Gould and Ezra Gould. He is predeceased by his beloved wife Anne (1926-2006) and his siblings: brother Anthony (1908-1989), and sisters Josephine Conti (1906-1984), Jennie Berardi (1910-1973), Carmel Mento (1915-2006), and Adalyn Sakami (1918-2008). The Berardi family wants to express their profound appreciation to the excellent and compassionate staff of UNC Rex Hospital Holly Spring’s Emergency Department; 4th Floor West, UNC REX Hospital, Raleigh, North Carolina; and Transitions LifeCenter, Raleigh, North Carolina for the outstanding benevolent care they gave Jim in his last days. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made in Jim’s memory to Transitions Life Center, 250 Hospice Circle, Raleigh, NC 27607 or to the Democratic National Committee, PO Box 96585, Washington, DC 20077-7242. The family will host a private celebration of Jim’s life. To honor the memory of their father and mother, and their dedication to education, the family has set up a memorial scholarship in the name of James D. and Anne L. Berardi, to be awarded to one graduating senior at Hubbard High School for the purpose of higher education. In 1955, the Hubbard High School graduating class paid tribute in their yearbook to Jim Berardi, their class advisor. Written some 68 years ago, their words apply just as fittingly to the man who was 96 years young: “His sense of humor and friendly manner have endeared him to each and every member of the class. He was never too busy to help us with the many problems that confronted us. May we always live up to the ideals he has set before us.” Arrangements entrusted to Wheeler & Woodlief Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 1130 N. Winstead Avenue, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. You may share memories and condolences with the family by visiting www.wheelerwoodlief.com.