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In memory of

Joseph "Joe" Belilos

Hewlett, NY, USA

1925 - September 24, 2020

1925 - Sep 24, 2020

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Joseph Belilos, of Hewlett, N.Y., one of the last of the greatest generation, passed peacefully at the age of 95 on September 24th. Joe was a man of great devotion, to god, his country, family, friends and the New York Yankees. Born the 7th of nine children to Sephardic Jewish immigrants, Eli and Rena, he grew up in a three-bedroom brownstone in Bensonhurst Brooklyn down the street from the Sephardic synagogue where Eli served as the Cantor. JoeyB, by all accounts, was a strong stickball player, emulating the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Hank Greenberg. With the news of the atrocities against Jews in Europe, Joe was eager to join his older brother Abe in service. At age 17, he tried to enlist in the army, but was turned away and forced to wait until his 18th birthday to join. At age 19, a Private First Class in the infantry, he landed on the beaches of Normandy and helped to liberate France. After the war, he returned to Brooklyn where he used his saved GI pay to purchase a truck that he would drive to farms outside the city and then return to sell his bounty along the busy streets. When Joe turned 30, Rena decided he was too old to remain a bachelor. When Joe came home from work one night, his brothers warned that Rena was upstairs waiting with the matchmaker. Instead of going upstairs, Joe got in his truck and drove to Miami with friends. There, he met his wife of 64 years, Joan, while waiting in traffic for a raised drawbridge to close. When the bridge closed, he was in the passenger seat of Joan’s car. Together they raised three children, Renee, Elise and Elliot. By example, Joe instilled in his children a strong work ethic and the importance of commitment to family. He was an entrepreneur, a salesman and an honest businessman. Growing up through the Great Depression taught him the value of frugality, but he was generous to a fault, often making personal sacrifices so his children would be afforded the best education possible and ensuring that no loved one would ever go hungry. He continued to shop for groceries and prepare meals for Joan well into his 90s. He never missed a Yankees game, from taking his son to see Mickey Mantle finish his career and Reggie Jackson win the 1977 World Series to listening to the team win one more time just before he passed. He was seldom seen without his Yankees cap on. But perhaps his greatest joy came when he watched his grandchildren playing the game he grew up loving. A two-time cancer survivor, he held onto life long enough to see his daughter, Elise, marry her college sweetheart in a small outdoor ceremony in the park near her home.. Joe is survived by his beloved wife, Joan, his daughter Renee Shaw, and her significant other, Robert Wilson, daughter Dr. Elise Belilos and her husband, Donnie Braunstein, son Elliot and his wife, Kathi Reidy, six grandchildren, Kali Saxton-Shaw and her husband Dan Saxton, Jeannine Shaw and her husband Brett Reeder, Alayna Shaw, Matthew Rivera, Ellie Belilos, Andy Belilos, Joe’s great grandson, Cooper Joseph Saxton, as well as loving neighbors he considered family, Bill and Lisa Dubin and their daughter Maya. Joe’s was a life well lived and he leaves a legacy of love.

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