Clementina Poto Langone

Clementina Poto Langone (1896–1964) was a civic leader from the North End of Boston who is remembered for her service to the Italian-American community. During the Great Depression she was known as a "Good Samaritan" who distributed food and clothing to the poor and advocated for them politically. As a member of the Massachusetts Board of Immigration and Americanization, she helped hundreds of Italian immigrants assimilate and obtain U.S. citizenship. She served as vice chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Clementina Poto Langone
Born
Clementina Maria Anna Poto

May 30, 1896
Boston, U.S.
DiedApril 20, 1964
Boston, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery
Malden, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Known for
Political partyDemocrat
Spouse(s)Joseph A. Langone, Jr.
ChildrenLouise, Joseph, Madeline, Frederick, William, Rita

Early life

Clementina Maria Anna Poto was born in the North End of Boston on May 30, 1896.[note 1] Her parents, Luigi Poto and Maddalena Debueris, were Italian immigrants from Castelcivita, Salerno. As a child, she attended Boston public schools and worked in the family grocery store on the first floor of her home. She studied business at Burdett College.[1]

Career

In 1920 she married another North End resident, Joseph A. Langone, Jr., son of Massachusetts state legislator Joseph A. (Giuseppe Antonio) Langone. In addition to raising six children and doing volunteer work in the community, she helped run the Langone family's funeral home on North Street. When Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in 1927, they were laid out at the Langone funeral home, where they were viewed by over ten thousand mourners, and the funeral procession drew many thousands more. The Boston Globe called it "one of the most tremendous funerals of modern times."[2]

During the Great Depression, Clementina Langone collected food and clothing for the poor and distributed them from her living room. Langone, who was bilingual, was especially helpful to Italian immigrants, many of whom spoke little or no English. In addition to helping them materially, she listened to their problems and explained to them how to get WPA jobs and other help from the government. She encouraged them to apply for U.S. citizenship so that they would be eligible for social security. As her reputation grew, people flocked to her house to ask for help, sometimes upward of 75 per day. She often spoke at political meetings and actively supported government aid to the poor.[1][3]

She also found time to campaign for her husband. A gifted organizer, she helped get her husband elected to the Massachusetts state senate in 1932. (In his autobiography, sociologist William Foote Whyte, who spent time with the Langone family when he was studying the North End, refers to Clementina Langone as "the candidate's wife and the real brains in the family.")[4] He narrowly defeated six Irish-American candidates, ending years of Irish political domination in his district, which included East Boston, Charlestown, and the North, West, and South Ends.[5] He went on to serve four consecutive terms, and was Boston Election Commissioner in several James Michael Curley administrations.[6]

Clementina Langone volunteered for many years as one of six members of the Massachusetts Board of Immigration and Americanization, helping Italian immigrants become U.S. citizens.[note 2] She was an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Massachusetts in 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948.[7] In 1936 she campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in 1944 she seconded the nomination of Harry Truman for Vice President.[8] She was president of the Salerno Women's Society; a member of the Professional and Business Women's Lodge (Order of the Sons of Italy), the guild of the Home for Italian Children, and the North End Union; and vice chairman of the women's division of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee.[6][9][note 3]

Honors and awards

Langone and her husband were widely known and appreciated in the Boston area. In 1940, over 5,000 people attended a testimonial banquet at Boston Garden in their honor. In attendance were Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin, Congressman John F. Fitzgerald, Attorney General Paul A. Dever, former Massachusetts governors James Michael Curley and Charles F. Hurley, Springfield mayor Roger Lowell Putnam, Medford mayor John C. Carr, and other Democratic leaders. Mayor Tobin said it was the largest testimonial dinner ever held in Boston.[10][11] Langone Park on Commercial Street, a waterfront park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, is named for the couple.[12][13]

33 North Square, formerly the site of the Poto grocery store where Langone lived and worked as a girl, is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.[14] A commemorative plaque at the site reads, "Birthplace of Hon. Clementina Langone, 1897 - 1964, Good Samaritan to all who needed her help, Dedicated Oct. 19, 1991".[15]

Later years

Langone spent her later years in Medford and Winchester, Massachusetts. Her husband died in 1960.[16] One of her children, Joseph A. Langone III, became a Massachusetts state representative, and another, Frederick C. Langone, was a Boston city councilor.[6] She died at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on April 20, 1964. According to her son Frederick, her last words were, "Don't forget the people."[3]

Notes
  1. Some sources list her birth year as 1896, others as 1898. Census records for 1900 and 1910 list her birth year as 1895 and "abt. 1897" respectively.
  2. According to several sources, she served for twenty years. According to the 1964 annual report of the Division of Immigration and Americanization, it was "over fifteen years".
  3. According to her Boston Globe obituary, she was "formerly vice chairman of the Democratic State Committee." She is pictured in a 1937 newspaper article about a regional conference of the women's division of the DNC with the caption, "Lower right—A few of the national committeewomen and state vice chairmen."
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References
  1. Morris, Patricia (June 2014). "Biographies of 21 Notable Women" (PDF). Boston Women's Heritage Trail. pp. 33–34.
  2. "200,000 See Huge Parade: Force Used to Drive Back Line Of Sacco-Vanzetti Marchers At Forest Hills". The Boston Globe. August 29, 1927.
  3. Langone, Fred (1994). The North End: Where It All Began. Boston: Post-Gazette, American Independence Edition. pp. 62, 92–93.
  4. Whyte, William Foote (1994). Participant Observer: An Autobiography. Cornell University Press. p. 79. ISBN 9780875463254.
  5. Whyte, William Foote (December 1939). "Race Conflicts in the North End of Boston". The New England Quarterly. 12 (4): 639. JSTOR 360446.
  6. "Mrs. Langone, Civic Leader, Dies at 67". The Boston Globe. 21 April 1964.
  7. "Clementina Maria Anna Poto Langone". RootsWeb.
  8. Cobb, Nathan (April 5, 1981). "The Never-Ending Campaign of Fred Langone". The Boston Globe.
  9. "Democratic Women No Longer Ladies Aid, Speaker Says: Now Asking Equal Rights With Men". The Day. June 16, 1937.
  10. "5000 at Dinner for Senator and Mrs. Langone". The Boston Globe. April 18, 1940.
  11. "6,210 at Testimonial Dinner for Langones". The Lewiston Daily Sun. April 18, 1940.
  12. "200 attend dedication of N. End Park". The Boston Globe. September 14, 1975.
  13. Bahne, Charles (2012). Chronicles of Old Boston: Exploring New England's Historic Capital. p. 201. ISBN 9780984633401.
  14. "North End Walk". Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
  15. "A Good Samaritan Remembered". Route99.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  16. "Deaths and Funerals: Ex-Sen. Langone Stricken in Back Bay, Dies at 62". The Boston Globe. June 10, 1960. Nearly as well known in political circles was his widow, Clementina ('Tina') Langone, who worked with him closely.
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