Eugene Tartaglione, 82

Eugene Tartaglione grew up on the streets of Port Richmond during the Great Depression the hard way.

Mr. Tartaglione's father "had a horse and buggy and took fruit and vegetables" through the neighborhood, with the teenage Eugene, who by then had been pulled out of junior high, selling from the wagon, said Renee Matos.

"My grandfather said it was easier to keep him out of school and pay the fine" for truancy than lose a good family worker, said Matos, a daughter of Mr. Tartaglione's.

Mr. Tartaglione, 82, husband of Philadelphia City Commission Chairwoman Marge Tartaglione, died Saturday of respiratory failure at Methodist Hospital. He lived in the Oxford Circle section of the city.

After selling produce in the streets - an occupation known as a "huckster" in those days, his daughter said - Mr. Tartaglione helped his father when he opened a grocery store in the neighborhood.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, he married Margaret Warnecka, a marriage that lasted 58 years.

After returning from the war, Mr. Tartaglione owned and operated two service stations, at Richmond and Somerset Streets and Aramingo Avenue and Somerset, for 32 years before getting out of the business.

He then bought Geno's, a tavern at Belgrade and Somerset Streets in Port Richmond, which he operated for eight years until he retired in 1989.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Tartaglione is survived by a son, Eugene Jr.; daughters Mary Ann Rossi and Christine; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a brother. Daughter Margaret Rivelli died in 2006.

Viewings are from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and 8:30 to 10 a.m. Friday at the Cassizzi Funeral Home, 2913 E. Thompson St. A Funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. Martin of Tours Church, 5450 Roosevelt Blvd. Burial will be private.