Happy 100th birthday, Rosaria (or Sadie)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rosaria was the name Italian immigrants Salvatore and Anna Renda chose for their eldest daughter, the third of their eight children. So why did her Wilkinsburg classmates and even her sisters call her Sadie?
Because that was the nickname of another Rosaria, the neighborhood girl who signed her up for school. Some people still call Rosaria Bonomo Sadie, but if you’re wishing her a happy 100th birthday, she prefers Sara.
She was born on Dec. 9, 1917, and grew up in Wilkinsburg, graduating from high school in 1935. She has one surviving sibling, Toni Vanderhoof of Sacramento, Calif.
In 1942, she married Joseph Bonomo Jr., an auto mechanic who owned an Amoco service station and Penn Hills Cab Co. They moved to Penn Hills and had one daughter, Loraine Taylor of Highland Park. For 25 years, Mrs. Bonomo was a dispatcher for the taxi company.
After retirement, they traveled to Florida, California, Egypt, Turkey, the Caribbean and Alaska, which they toured by car with a trailer. Mrs. Bonomo, who loves yellow flowers, served as president and treasurer of the Garden Club of Monroeville and its predecessor, the University Park Garden Club.
Her husband died in 1997 after 55 years of marriage. Mrs. Bonomo lives with her daughter and enjoys playing cards, working word searches, solving jigsaw puzzles and visiting and talking with her sister and nieces and nephews. She spends time at Stephen Foster Community Center in Lawrenceville and SarahCare Adult Day Services in Forest Hills.
She celebrated her birthday with a luncheon Saturday in Monroeville with more than 60 friends and family members.
If you or a friend or a relative recently turned 100 or will soon do so, the Post-Gazette would like to hear from you. To be included in Century Club, send the honoree’s biographical information and your phone number to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Century Club, Attn: Kevin Kirkland, 358 North Shore Drive, Suite 300, Pittsburgh 15212. E-mail: kkirkland@post-gazette.com.