{"id":263340,"date":"2026-08-11T16:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263340\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:38:22","slug":"passarella-wwii-veteran-and-longtime-gene-dempsey-orchestra-leader-dies-at-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263340\/","title":{"rendered":"Passarella, WWII veteran and longtime Gene Dempsey Orchestra leader, dies at 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gene Passarella came home from World War II and entertained Northeast Pennsylvania with his music for seven decades.<\/p>\n

The founder of the Gene Dempsey Orchestra died Saturday, days shy of his 101st birthday.<\/p>\n

WVIA News profiled Passarella<\/a> in September 2024, and NPR aired the story<\/a> two months later on Veteran\u2019s Day, bringing national attention to his life and music.<\/p>\n

The community and orchestra celebrated Passarella\u2019s 100th birthday<\/a> at a concert in Nay Aug Park last summer.<\/p>\n

\"Gene<\/p>\n

Gene Passarella reaches for his wife Louise during his 100th birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

He died at the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center, where he had lived since last year. He is survived by his wife of nearly 74 years, the former Louise Colangelo; daughter Cathy Van Nort; and two grandsons.<\/p>\n

His funeral is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m.<\/a> in St. Patrick\u2019s Church, 1403 Jackson St., Scranton. Interment with Military Honors will follow in Cathedral Cemetery. Family and friends may pay their respects Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Solfanelli-Fiorillo Funeral Home Inc., 1030 N. Main Ave., Scranton.<\/p>\n

\"Gene<\/p>\n

Gene Passarella, then 99, leads the Gene Dempsey Orchestra at the La Festa Italiana in Scranton during Labor Day weekend 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gene Passarella came home from World War II and entertained Northeast Pennsylvania with his music for seven decades.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263340","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\/263340","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=263340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}