Joe Saccone, who co-founded Marin’s United Markets grocery stores, died on Jan. 18 in San Rafael. He was 107.
Mr. Saccone, who tossed bocce balls at San Rafael’s Albert Park until he was 102, died of heart failure brought on by a brief illness, according to family.
Born in Oakland and raised in San Francisco, Mr. Saccone graduated from Galileo High School and landed his first job delivering groceries on his bicycle for a chain of neighborhood markets. He married his wife Elda in 1940.
Mr. Saccone served as an anti-aircraft artillery gun commander in World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service. When he got back to San Francisco, he returned to his grocery job and eventually bought the business with his brother Ben.
The brothers opened their first Marin County store, United Markets, in 1955 on Third Street in San Rafael. It was the largest market in Marin, with produce and meat departments and a garden center.
“It was a small-town community where everybody knew everybody, and that being the first large supermarket, it became a meeting place,” said Bob Musante, who worked for the Saccones for 25 years and eventually bought United Markets from them with his business partner, Bill Daniels.
Mr. Saccone moved to San Rafael with his wife and two children in 1959. He and his brother, who lived next door on Forbes Avenue, opened their second United store in Marin that year in San Anselmo. They closed their San Francisco markets.
Mr. Saccone was a “hands-on” owner at United, Musante said.
“He would walk up and down the aisles,” Musante said, “and he had something to say to everybody.”
After the Saccone brothers sold the business, they teed off at every golf course in Scotland and on every Hawaiian island. A 7-handicap golfer, Mr. Saccone played until he was 80 years old, when “he decided he was tired of all the walking,” said his daughter, Noella Albertazzi.
“That’s when he turned to bocce,” she said.
Mr. Saccone was one of the earliest members of the Marin Bocce Federation in Albert Park, which started in 1994. He played at least three nights a week and racked up gold medals playing in tournaments with his three teams.
Leaning against a cane and later a walker as he threw balls, Mr. Saccone “was the oldest guy out there,” said Cecile Tescallo, who joined the bocce club at Mr. Saccone’s urging after she retired from United Markets. Mr. Saccone played until he broke his hip at age 102.
“Bocce was the No. 1 thing for him,” Tescallo said. “And he threw beautifully.”
On his 100th birthday, Mr. Saccone’s family threw him a surprise party at the bocce courts, where they played a tournament with four generations of the family.
In addition to his daughter and her husband, Robert Albertazzi, Mr. Saccone is survived by his son, Joe; four grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. His wife, his brother and his sister, Catherine Erro, died previously.
