Perry Louis Riccio

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Obituary for Perry Louis Riccio
Perry Riccio was born on February 12, 1926, in Toronto, Ontario; the youngest of a family of five children; Lena, Patrick, Jimmy and Antoinette and Perry. It was evident that the very lively, active family were determined to excel and gifted in music and performing as in his early years Perry’s musical abilities were encouraged. Perry played saxophone, clarinet, flute, and piano. Perry became a professional musician and a proud member of the Musician’s Union and was a member of many Swing music bands in the GTA area. Perry performed weekends and many holidays such as New Year's Eve.

Once Perry and Mary married the music jobs continued over the years and the whole family, Laura, Robert, and Peter were brought to many summer concerts in parks in Toronto, such as Earlscourt Park and High Park. The Santa Claus Parade is an annual Toronto event where Perry performed with the military band, the Royal Grenadiers. Perry’s black fur busby hat and sharp looking black, red, and gold trimmed uniform made an outstanding good impression on his wife and children.
Family life was very important to Perry and with his siblings, Pat, and Jimmy he played music and learned how to cook in a restaurant and practiced the skills needed for the operation of shoe repair business. Perry married Mary in 1952 and began a family that year, happy to visit their older siblings in Toronto and his parents in the early years.
Perry became a driver salesman for Weston Bakeries while continuing to be a musician. Mary was the true, loyal, devoted love, wife and mother of Perry and a full partner in all his life experiences. Together they bought houses to live in. Always interested in the art of real estate, Perry purchased a vacation home in the newly created recreation area of the Moira River, near Tweed, Ontario. Perry had a cottage where the whole family enjoyed canoeing and the fun recreation available on the river. Many wonderful memories of life at the cottage were created. The drive to the cottage was always memorable with shopping stops at the Cheese Factory.

A pivotal event in Perry’s life was his unfortunate accident at his workplace when he was in his 60’s and the accident precipitated a long period of recovery and ended his working life. His wife, Mary took good care of him for many years and Perry made an excellent recovery. In order to enjoy some leisure, Mary and Perry began to take wonderful cruise vacations, beginning with Musician group cruises and then luxury cruises including the Trans-Atlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2 ship. They met many interesting people; the captain’s table was a great memory, and they created some friendships with couples with similar interests.

Perry enjoyed his family life and had a large, spontaneous laugh and big smile which lit up his face. Perry was a wonderful example of a devoted husband and father for his extended family. Perry liked to travel with his wife, and he was reliant in the later years on Mary to drive him everywhere and to organize their life. However, Perry always maintained a keen interest in automobiles. Trips to Ottawa were very important to Perry because he was a patriot and took an interest in the government and the news of politics and community life.

Perry taught himself about many subjects by extensive reading and by watching informative television programs and documentaries. Education was very important to Perry, and he continuously supported the T V Ontario network. Perry was a loyal blood donor and a donor for many charities.

Perry delighted in watching his family increase in size and participated in all the family meals at his house and at his children’s’ homes.
Mary and Perry’s final residence was a retirement home in Newmarket, Ontario where Perry lived for
over 8 years, choosing the home because of a quiet, residential area close to where their daughter lived.
Mary passed away on February 7, 2021.
Perry passed away at the same retirement home on Sunday, November 20, 2022.
Survivors of Perry:
Daughter: Laura Bourque (Peter)
Son: Robert Riccio (Diane)
Son: Peter Riccio (Jennifer)
Grandchildren: Michael (Rasna), Louise (Mathew), Elizabeth (Jake)
Joseph, Teresa, Stephen , Paul, John, Monica, Nick
Great- grandchildren: Xavier and Avendra