WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – It was a reunion more than a decade in the making at Watertown’s Italian American Civic Association Sunday afternoon.
Dozens of family members and descendants of Leonard Root came together for a flag raising and dinner to celebrate the club being in an existence for nearly 75 years.
Root was one of the Italian American Club’s 4 founding members, who helped to start it up in 1939. He was a highly regarded political figure in the area at the time.
Root’s daughter, Roxanne, says her father was a people person and used the club to help bring together other Italian immigrants to make sure they had a voice in the community.
“He’d be working the room, working from one to the other, all around saying, ‘I am so glad your are here! Oh, you are making so much a difference, what are you doing for your community?’ And the buttons would pop off his shirt I guess, best way to say it,” said Roxanne Root-Pratt.
Some descendants traveled as far as Austria to come to the reunion, the first one the family has had since 2010. Roxanne says they hope to continue to celebrate their family name more frequently in the future.
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