From our house to yours we are wishing all our Family and Friends a very Blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with Good Health and Happiness. -- Mike and Irene

Irene Fazio Preolitti, Class of 1966, and husband Mike Preolitti live in Traction Park, just past the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Monongah.

Irene Preolitti is a daughter of the late Frances and Renzy Fazio, who ran Fazio’s Grocery at the bottom of Jackson Street hill in Monongah. Frances’ siblings were the late Helen Olesky Kerekes and John W. Olesky, Sr.

Helen’s major claim to fame was the Christmas cookies she baked. They were astounding! Helen used to mail Christmas cookies to me after I moved to Ohio long after I left West Virginia. I looked forward to the luscious Yule tasties every year.

John Fazio, the lanky pitcher for Monongah High School who passed away in 2006, was Renzy’s brother. John’s widow is  Dolores Stancheck.

There were 13 children in the Fazio family:

Jeanette Fazio DiBiase, who died in 2003; Albert Fazio of New York; Mary Virginia Fazio Pasquale and husband Joseph of Fairmont; the late Nick, James, Joseph and Michael; Edith Fazio DeCarlo, Elizabeth Fazio Domico, Angeline Fazio Prozzillo and Carmella Fazio DePond. 

Irene’s siblings are Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, who lives on Pike Street in Monongah with husband Tom Ramsey in the home once owned by Helen and Steve Kerekes; David Fazio, married to Cora, operator of Fazio's Eldercare in Stoney Lonesome; Steve Fazio, widower of Nancy; and Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, married to Tom.

If you have memories of the Fazio or Olesky families, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add them to this Monongah High Alumni blog.