Category — Who He Was/Who She Was

The life Jeanette Striano led was one that was always interesting, never boring, and more often than not crazy. Her days of rebellion occurred during the 1940’s. My mother Arlene Iezzi is Jeanette’s daughter and she is the keeper of the legends about my grandmother’s colorful past. To hear my mother tell the stories is to actually be there. The world that my grandmother lived in during her youth was one that was in a constant state of flux. There was a real disparity between the traditions of the old and the styles of the new. My grandmother, while proud of her heritage, openly embraced the chaos that was 1940’s Brooklyn. Her mother Angelina, however, had other ideas about what constituted a young lady and that led to some of the most infamous stories regarding my grandmother. [Read more →]

Author, New York Times columnist, and dedicated son Mr. Sam Freedman appeared at Baruch College last week for a talk back about his historical biography Who She Was. The book is a factual rendering of his mother’s life: raw, unpretentious, and heartbreaking. [Read more →]

           If he wasn’t working he was driving. Driving south, every few months after the divorce from his first wife Marilyn McClure and the separation from the son he always wanted, he just dropped everything and drove. On his way there he thought of her, how when he married her she looked just like Diana Ross- she still did. He thought of Bryan, their son Bryan who was so bright in everything.  It was the thought of them that kept him awake and heartened on the road. From New York City to Orlando he didn’t even make a stop at to sleep at one of the motels that lined the highway. [Read more →]