Brownsville alumna, performer dies at 82
In her 1946 yearbook for Brownsville Senior High School, Norma Milazzo said her ambition was to reach “the stage.” She achieved that goal, going on to perform in off-Broadway shows, sing with the Pittsburgh Pops, work in regional dinner theater and even perform at Carnegie Music Hall in New York City.
Milazzo, 82, of West Mifflin died Tuesday from Alzheimer’s disease.
Lisa Gojkovich, Milazzo’s daughter, recalled her mother’s powerful voice and noted, “They called her the Italian Ethel Merman.”
Norma Jane DePaolis Milazzo was born in Masontown in 1928 to the late Richard and Mary DePaolis. The family later moved to Brownsville.
After her high school graduation, Milazzo moved to New York City where she studied at a drama school and began finding work off-Broadway in the late 1940s. She worked with such actors as Michael Constantine, known for his work in the television series “Room 222” and the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and Wayne Rogers, later of the television series “MASH.”
Milazzo also did a performance at Princeton University after which Albert Einstein came backstage to meet her and shake her hand. She had a photograph taken with the great scientist.
She married Peter Milazzo, whom she went to school with at Brownsville high school, in 1949. He followed her to New York and found work as a stagehand and set builder while Milazzo worked as a performer. Following their wedding, Milazzo hurried back to New York to perform in a show called “Meet the Wife.”
The couple had two daughters, Gojkovich, born in 1955, and Nina Mascio, born in 1958, while in New York.
“But she always remained a Brownsville girl at heart,” said Gojkovich, “because her mother and father still lived in Brownsville. She would come back all the time.”
The Milazzo family moved back to Brownsville in the 1950s.
Gojkovich explained, “She felt that New York City was not a good place to raise children and my grandmother was ill.”
Her mother recovered and Milazzo began to perform in the area, working in shows in Brownsville and Uniontown. Peter Milazzo found work as an upholsterer and carpet installer. The Milazzos also performed as soloists in the choir at First United Methodist Church in Brownsville.
The family moved to Uniontown after Milazzo found work as an executive secretary with William G. Beal Inc., a motion picture company in Pittsburgh that made industrial films.
Gojkovich said Beal introduced her mother to the Pittsburgh Pops, part of the Pittsburgh Symphony. She toured with the Pops, including an engagement in Europe and a performance on May 19, 1964, at the Carnegie Music Hall in New York City. She also worked with guitarist Joe Negri during this time with the Pops, and they became good friends.
Milazzo made an album with the Pops called “An American Musical Panorama” in the early 1960s as well as a tribute record to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination called “She Put a Ring in His Hand,” referring to Jacqueline Kennedy placing her wedding ring in her husband’s hand before his burial.
Milazzo appeared on Jerry Lewis’ telethon to combat muscular dystrophy with television actor Michael Landon of “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie” fame. She met baseball legend Roberto Clemente, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Milazzo became a script supervisor for the industrial films company. While she didn’t attend college, she credited her knowledge of grammar with the fine education she received at Brownsville high school, Gojkovich said.
The family traveled with Milazzo’s work with the motion picture company, including a trip to the Bahamas in the late 1960s where they met actor Sean Connery’s stunt double for a James Bond film.
Peter Milazzo kept busy with his own work and also performed with a barbershop quartet while the family lived in Uniontown.
The Milazzos moved to Pittsburgh in 1968. But Milazzo’s daughters continued to take piano lessons from a teacher in Uniontown and Milazzo would drive them to the weekly lesson on Saturdays before going back to the city where she would often perform two shows that Saturday night.
Her daughters would become her accompanists and received piano scholarships to Duquesne University.
They continued to work in the arts with Gojkovich today writing and directing children’s shows and Mascio working as organist at St. Therese Catholic Church in Munhall.
Both women are also musical directors for Pittsburgh area high schools and professional organizations.
As she became more involved with her family, Milazzo stopped traveling as much for singing engagements and began performing in regional dinner theater. Gojkovich remembers directing her mother in a show with vocalist Etta Cox.
Gojkovich said the Milazzos kept their family grounded. They were active in their church and community.
There were volunteers when their daughters performed in the West Mifflin high school band, orchestra and choirs.
“On Sundays, she always had spaghetti cooking. She was a marvelous cook,” said Gojkovich.
Milazzo enjoyed socializing and often invited performers to their house. Gojkovich remembers her mother inviting people over to Thanksgiving dinner so they wouldn’t be alone.
Milazzo developed cancer in the 1980s but recovered and continued performing. She appeared at the Italian Festival in Uniontown as well as Italian Day at Kennywood regularly, often appearing with Mario Martinelli, Mario DeNardo and Negri.
Milazzo retired from performing in 1996 after her husband’s death from cancer. She lived with her daughters and loved to listen to them play piano and hear her grandchildren sing in the church choir. She has four grandchildren: John, Daniel and Dino Mascio and Mia Gojkovich.
In recent years, Milazzo developed Alzheimer’s disease and lived in a nursing home. But she often continued to sing for the staff and her family.
“One thing she taught us was that the show must go on, and that applied to our lives – that life must go on,” said Gojkovich. “That’s why we can go on today. She was a strong role model and we loved her dearly.”
Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today at Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home Inc. in Pleasant Hills, where a service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m.