\t\t\tEugene \u2018Dempsey\u2019 Passarella \t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tOBITUARY\t\t<\/p>\n
Gene Dempsey Passarella, 100, of West Scranton, just days shy of his 101st birthday, died Saturday, August 8, 2026, at the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center. His wife of nearly 74 years is the former Louise Colangelo.<\/p>\n
\nBorn in Scranton he was the son of the late Giralamo and Saveria Miele Passariello. A graduate of Scranton Central High School, he proudly served in the United States Army in World War II, in the European Theater where he earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor for his bravery in combat. Prior to retirement he was employed by the US Postal Service.<\/p>\n
\nGene was the leader of the Gene Dempsey Orchestra, who entertained people in the Scranton area for nearly 70 years.<\/p>\n
\nAlso surviving are daughter Cathy Van Nort, Dalton; grandsons Tim Van Nort and wife Alycia Coar; Mark Van Nort, several nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n
\nHe was preceded in death by 7 brothers and 4 sisters.<\/p>\n
\nA Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday at 11 am in St. Patrick\u2019s Church, 1403 Jackson St., Scranton. Interment with Military Honors will follow in Cathedral Cemetery. All attending the mass are kindly asked to proceed directly to church. Family and friends may pay their respects Thursday from 5-7 pm in the Solfanelli-Fiorillo Funeral Home Inc., 1030 N. Main Ave., Scranton. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Gene Dempsey Passarella Music Scholarship, C\/O Citizens Bank, 156 South Main Avenue, Scranton, PA 18504.<\/p>\n
\nPlease visit the funeral home website to leave an online condolence.<\/p>\n
\nEugene \u2018Dempsey\u2019 Passarella<\/p>\n
\nAugust 8, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eugene \u2018Dempsey\u2019 Passarella OBITUARY Gene Dempsey Passarella, 100, of West Scranton, just days shy of his 101st birthday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}