Jean Bevacqua

  Jean Bevacqua was born Vincenza Oliveri in the East New York/Brownsville section of Brooklyn in New York City in 1922. She was the second of three daughters born to Simone Oliveri and Rosaria Fontana Oliveri, recent immigrants from Sicily, who settled in New York after the end of World War I. When her parents registered her for school, they anglicized her name to Jean. She and her sisters, Antonina (Lena) and Anna (Annie), and their parents lived in a walk‐up tenement apartment building on Osborn Street. Jean attended NYC public schools in Brooklyn. She excelled at art, enjoyed playing handball, and sang in the Our Lady of Loretto church choir. She graduated from Glenmore Junior High School in 1938.    The family moved to a 4‐family house on Benson Avenue in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in 1939. As was common among many teenagers of the day, Jean left high school to work and help support the family. She worked as a seamstress, making ladies’ dresses, slips, and u...