Eugene Lissandrello, 95, an artist whose work was shown at CANO, peacefully died of old age on Sept. 30, 2019, at Fox Nursing Home. Eugene was born to Italian immigrant parents, Giorgio and Marietta Lissandrello, of Ragusa, Sicily, in Brooklyn, in 1924. Artist, teacher, and World War II veteran, Gene’s first opportunity to discover his love for art was through free classes offered by the WPA near his home in Bensonhurst.

Though accepted at the Cooper Union School of Art, with free admission, he was drafted into the US Army at 19 years of age. His ordnance unit supported the Normandy invasion in 1944. Following the war, he graduated from the Pratt Institute of Art on the G.I. Bill in ’49. He met his true love, Mary Colleen Moore, of Villisca, Iowa, in their painting class while pursuing his MFA at Columbia University, in 1951. Their love would abide for 69 years to this day.