Cioni, Gisa

Through sacrifice, resilience, and family connections, the Cioni family helped shape Calgary’s early Italian community.

Genesio (Gene), Gary, Martha, Maria (in front)

Gisa Cioni was the first of the Sabato Cioni children to arrive in Calgary from Antrodoco, Rieti, for her marriage to Ricardo Santopinto in 1912 (see Santopinto Family).

Gisa’s mother, Villemina Cattani Cioni, had died in 1902 and a year later her father, Sabato Cioni, married Flavia (Fulvia) Cardellini Cioni. They had two sons: Genesio (born April 18, 1907) and Sabatino, born one year later.

In 1917, Flavia left her two sons in the care of their grandmother Rosa Poscente Cioni and accepted paid passage to Calgary to marry Annibale Corradetti, a paesano. This was the second marriage for both and in 1918, Nicholas, the first of their four children, was born. Other children were Mary (b. 1921), John (b. 1923), and Sylvia (b. 1924).

Flavia realized that Annibale would not pay to bring her own sons to Calgary as promised. She entered a scheme with the owner of Roma Grocery to augment the monthly total of food bills by a few dollars and managed to save about $250 over five years to bring her older son, Genesio, to Calgary. He arrived on May 23, 1923, among the last to leave Italy as Mussolini cut off emigration.

Genesio Cioni knocked on his mother’s door at 622 - 2 Ave. N.E. A surprised Annibale ordered him to work to pay for his keep. A job was arranged at the Calgary Shoe Hospital, owned by Louis Carloni, a paesano, and two years later, when Genesio could speak English, his mother enrolled him in Hemphill Barber College, confident that this profession would enable a good life. He worked as a barber in Edmonton for a year. Flavia died of a ruptured gall bladder on February 17, 1926.

After Flavia died, eighteen-year-old Genesio moved in with Gisa, his half-sister, and the Santopinto family. Here, Gisa showed him how to cook the foods of Antrodoco and paesano connections helped him obtain a job in the kitchen of the Palliser Hotel, where he learned the basics of fine English cooking.

In 1938, Genesio, now known as “Gene,” met Martha Arndt, an American immigrant, and on June 28, 1939 they married. Their son Gary was born April 14, 1940, as WWII broke out. Maria would later be born on January 24, 1948.

Throughout the war, Gene, classified by the government as an “enemy alien,” cooked and managed the staff of the 24-hour cafeteria at Burns Meat Packing. He suffered from pneumonia and exhaustion as the war ended and used this period to assess his future. On November 28, 1947, he became a Canadian citizen. Gene Cioni died on April 28, 1957 of a heart attack.