Charles Joseph Vignieri

Very early this last Wednesday morning, March 18^th, 2015, a great man slipped away from us. He was Charles Joseph Vignieri, born in Chicago 90 years ago in humble beginnings to a young Italian immigrant couple. He arrived in the middle of the roaring twenties, October 7^th, 1924, when there was hope, and optimism, and millions of little families like this, each building their own American dream. The First World War was a fading memory and the depression was as yet unknown.

In 1926, Charles gained a little sister, Mary, but in 1932, when he was 7, they lost their mom to a brief illness. Frank remarried to Clara Misurelli, and then moved here to Kenosha from Waukegan, Illinois with his family, to which they would eventually add six more children. Charlie, the oldest, was expected to help his father when in 1937, Frank decided to go into the meat business. After school and especially on Saturdays, 13 year old Charlie helped his father collect veal calves from outlying farms (like “out there” on 39^th Avenue) and together they would butcher, process, and deliver meat to local neighborhood grocery stores. Young Charlie couldn’t have known it then, but his life’s work had begun.

1942 was important. During Charlie’s senior year at Kenosha High School, he and his friends attended Big Band Dances held every Sunday night at the Eagles Ballroom downtown. It was there he met a lovely girl who had come down from Racine with her friends on the “Inter-Urban” light rail train transport that ran “all the way to Milwaukee.” Charlie’s best friend had met her the night before at a “blackout drill” in downtown Racine, and he had invited her to the dance. This was Lorraine Josephine Vanderwarn, and Charlie was instantly and completely smitten. They danced the first dance together, then danced the rest of the night together, and then danced the rest of their lives together. He often said “I believe in love at first sight, because it happened to me!”

But love and marriage would have to wait … there was a new World War brewing. At the train depot the day he left for overseas, Lorraine sent Charlie away with a perfumed handkerchief, and a promise to be his wife after the war. For three years that hanky was mailed back and forth between the two. He’d send it home when it ran out of smell, and she’d happily send it back with a fresh dose of perfume. The sweet, simple love affair that started ‘back home’ in Kenosha was holding fast on a terrifying world stage.

When Charlie’s troop transport was sent to the Pacific to prepare for the invasion of Japan, it had to “stand down” to allow a fast cruiser to go out under the Golden Gate Bridge ahead of it. That cruiser was the Indianapolis, and it was carrying “Little Boy,” the bomb destined to be dropped on Hiroshima. Charlie was scheduled D+3, which meant he would be landed on the third day of the invasion. But Japan surrendered instead, and the remainder of his army career was spent handling supplies in the Philippines.

In 1945, he was honorably discharged and returned from across the ocean. He took up right where he left off at his father’s side, helping run the business, Frank Vignieri & Son, which would eventually change names to Kenosha Packing Company, and finally (and still today) Kenosha Beef International/Birchwood Foods. On June 29^th, 1946, at St. Mary’s in Racine, he and Lorraine were finally married. They started their life in a small, tumble down, cramped, two room ‘efficiency’ apartment, which Charlie often said was the “best place I ever lived … because it was just me and my sweet Lorraine.” This wasn’t to last.

They had a little boy, Allan, who came along in May, 1948. Then a little girl, Susan, in 1949. Then Dennis in ’52, Richard in ’53, Patricia in ’55, Joseph (me) in ’57, Thomas in ’61, Daniel in ’63, and finally Mark, in 1964. Nine kids in all! When a tenth pregnancy miscarried, Charlie and Lorraine were done having children, at least of their own. They were not, however, done raising a family. Today there are 23 grandchildren and 39 great grandchildren! “La Familia Vignieri” has grown to 90, and they are all Charlie’s kids. He was known to say to Lorraine at huge family gatherings “look what you did!” She would quip back without hesitation “you were there too!”

Charlie loved family. He’d often begin a speech to his employees by saying “our work is important, but first comes God, and then comes family!” That’s not to say he didn’t love work though, because he did. Charlie was a business man without equal. The company was as much ‘home’ as was his own house, and every one of his employees was ‘family’ whether they were his vice presidents or his security guards. He tried to know them all by name, and he led them with the same values he taught his nine children … hard work, responsibility, honesty, loyalty. He was tough without being uncompassionate, and he was compassionate without losing his toughness. He told me that he learned the secret to success is simple: show up in the morning, unlock the door, and work hard all day … then go home to rest and do it again tomorrow.

Success followed Charlie wherever he went, at home, at work, and also in the community. A long standing member and past president of the Rotary Club, Charlie always cared deeply for Kenosha. He joined numerous boards and charity organizations and is widely known for his philanthropy to many of the service organizations of our community. He was very active in the meat industry also, leading innovation with vacuum packaging in a day when very few even knew what that was. His perseverance and foresight shaped the boxed beef industry. His company is currently operating facilities in three states, and sends a weekly paycheck home to over 700 families. Charlie made a difference in every community circle through which he moved.

Towards the end of his life, the cause of unborn children became Charlie and Lorraine’s passion. They loved kids. Along with Lorraine he joined WRTL (Wisconsin Right to Life) and worked tirelessly to slow the rate of abortion, while simultaneously supporting many of the services and shelters in the community needed to support the women who then choose to carry their child. His was a passion that spoke out, but at the same time did not, would not, shirk the responsibility that comes along with those words.

In 2003, Charlie was struck with two strokes that left him a quadriplegic. Finally, at the age of 79, he was forced to retire. For nine years he was cared for by excellent staff at St. Joseph’s Nursing Home, and then for the last three years he convalesced at home, cared for by a group of girls he called “Charlie’s Angels.” As with everyone else in life that came to know this dear man, they were absorbed into the gravity of his life force, and are now his family, his children.

In September of 2009 Charlie lost his sweet Lorraine. He told me many times “I want to be with Lorraine.” He would say “I don’t understand why God did this to me.” I would tell him “I think it’s because you were the strong one. Mom couldn’t be the one left behind, and God knew that.” In every relationship, he was always the strong one. He was a man who would carry other’s burdens on his shoulders even though his own legs wouldn’t hold him up.

Charlie is survived by his nine children, Allan Vignieri, and his wife, Karla (Perkins), Dennis Vignieri, Susan Seymour and her fiancé, Mike Dicello, Richard Vignieri, Patricia Palmer and her husband, Daniel, Joseph Vignieri, Thomas Vignieri, and his wife, Ali (Amherst), Daniel Vignieri and his wife, Jodi (Lamb), Mark Vignieri and his fiancé, Patricia Carey, his honorary daughter, Vicki Vignieri, and his best friend, Earlene Girman.

He is survived by his sister, Mary Sevick, his sister, Rosemary Weingrad and her husband, Steven, his sister, Judy Martir, his brother, Michael Vignieri and his wife, Michelle, and his youngest brother, Tony Vignieri and his wife, Elizabeth.

He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Frank and Rosaria “Sadie” (Saporita) Vignieri, his beloved wife, Lorraine, his brother, Frank Vignieri, and his sister, Joyce Heinze and her husband, Thomas.

The Vignieri family would like to send special thanks and love to Dr. Giuseppe Garretto. Sir, your skill, knowledge, and gracious kindness made our care of Charlie the best it possibly could be. We are forever in your debt.