- Date Of Death: April 9, 2010
- State: Connecticut
Louise “Gigi” Girolomoni Teodosio, 92, of Silverbrook Estates, 100 Red Cedar Road, Orange, passed away there on April 9, 2010. She was the widow of celebrated Neopolitan singer, radio personality and restaurateur Frank Teodosio and was a former resident of Rolling Ridge Road in Orange. Mrs. Teodosio was born in New Haven Sept. 21, 1917, daughter of the late Angelo and Battista Battisti Girolomoni. When she was 4 years old, her mother took her and her brother to Italy. When Gigi was 9, her mother attempted to return to the US with her children. Mussolini was in power in Italy and the government tried to block their return. When they returned to West Haven, Gigi attended West Haven public schools and was voted “most witty” and “most beautiful” in her class. She became an accomplished pianist, and, in her late teens started her own girl’s band called “Lou Moni’s Band”. She made her debut at the old Hejaz Grotto at Howard and Columbus Avenue in New Haven. She and her husband married in 1940 and she joined him in the operation of his coffee shop, “CafAC. degli Artisti” on Franklin St., the forerunner of the well known Frankie’s Restaurant at Chapel and Franklin and it’s famous “tabala calda” steam table. There they hosted many personalities such as Frankie Avelon, Louis Armstrong, the Four Aces and George H.W. Bush. When Redevelopment came thru to make way for the Wooster Square Project, they relocated to Orange and opened Frankie’s Villa Pompeii on the Post Road. In her retirement, Gigi divided her time between Florida and Connecticut.
