Michele and Giuseppina Vecchio

Michele, Battista, Antonietta, Giuseppina and Albert Vecchio

Michele Vecchio was the first member of the Vecchio family to immigrate to Canada. He was born in 1880 in Grimaldi, Cosenza, Calabria and arrived in New York in 1910, with his final destination listed as Fernie, BC.  According to a 1921 Manifest, his wife, Giuseppina Maio, arrived with her son, Giovanni Battista (born 1907) and daughter, Antonietta (born 1911).  A third child, Albert, was born in Fernie, in 1922.  Michele was a boiler room employee of the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Mine in Fernie. He moved to Kelowna upon his retirement in 1949.  Michele and Josephine are both at rest in Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery.

Giovanni Battista worked in Fernie. In 1927 he married May Hughes.  He passed away in 1964 in Nelson.

Mariantonia Antonietta was born in 1908.  She married Salvatore Porco in 1926 where he was working at the mine in Natal.  They had two children: Gino Luigi and Carlo Ernest. Gino died in an accident in 1962, while working at the Crawford Sawmill.  Carlo and his father ran Porco’s Pool Hall on Ellis Street.

Their third child, Albert, was born in 1922. Albert  worked in the Crow’s Nest Company coal mines before coming to Kelowna in 1946.  His first job in Kelowna was working in 'Cap' Capozzi's grocery store.  He married Ida Russo in 1948 and together they built and operated 'Al's Cafe' in Winfield (Lake Country).

Albert was always involved in his community. From 1965 to 1975, he was the Director of the Winfield Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Independent Order of Foresters. He contributed to the start of the Winfield Volunteer Fire Department, as the first dispatcher.  In 1975, he sold the café and focused on land development and building rental units. He came out of ‘retirement’ in 1981 to help his daughters run 'Cafe Bella Bimba’.

Albert and Ida were actively involved in the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club. Albert served as it's president from 1978-1980 and was instrumental in opening the bocce courts at the Parkinson Center.  Albert Vecchio passed away in 2006, following Ida's death in 1999.