ANTONINO WILLIAM ‘TONY’ MATACIA was born February 27, 1898 in Cincinnati, OH, and died March 5, 1982 in Charlottesville, VA.
1st wife: NANCY LOUISE O. LIPTRAP MATACIA b. August 8, 1899 Staunton, Augusta County VA; father: W. Liptrap, mother: I. Myers; widowed by 1st ‘husband’ Richard Lamb; m. Tony Matacia October 18, 1921, Staunton VA; divorced Tony c. 1938 and married the former Catholic priest, Monsignor Donald John ‘Doc’ Scharf,.
Obituary of Louise Liptrap Matacia/ Scharf
Wilmington Morning News Jan 20, 1984
2nd wife: MARY ROBINSON LEAKE MATACIA. m. March 8, 1949; divorced in Duval, FL 1952.
Tony was a veteran of both World Wars Years of enlistment: WWI 1918-1919; WW II 1942-1943.
After leaving the Matacia Fruit Co, Tony became the proprietor of a sandwich shop (US Census 1930) and later worked as a mechanic in the C& O roundhouse in Charlottesville.
Tony looked out for those he loved: he adopted Ruby Lamb, who had been born (in 1916) out of wedlock to his 1st wife, Louise Liptrap, when she was but a teenager of 14. The father of Ruby was Richard V. Lamb who married Louise well after the birth of Ruby, the latter of whom was already seeing James Franklin Lingan. In fact, both Ruby and James Franklin attended the marriage of Louise to Ruby’s father, Richard Lamb. The thing that is so very unusual here is that there is no mention of a divorce from Tony at this point.
Louise’s daughter, Ruby, had a daughter, Janice Lingen, born, like Ruby, out of wedlock. But on July 18, 1931, Ruby, at age 15, married James Franklin Lingan in Charlottesville VA. The latter was never seen again after that fateful ‘shotgun-marriage’ day.
Around 1938 Louise fell in love with Monsignor Scharf, known as ‘Doc’, and eventually divorced Tony in order to marry the priest.
Tony’s 2nd wife was Mary, a waitress at Arthur’s Grill in Charlottesville.
Tony, a ‘regular guy’ spoke English in a very staccato manner, and also could converse in perfect Sicilian. He had an outstanding bass-baritone voice and, as a young man, aspired to become an opera singer, but his father, Gus, would not permit him to take voice lessons.
From 1931-to 1938, Tony & Louise Matacia lived at 610 E. High St. in Charlottesville. Its backyard was actually just across the street from Tony’s parents’ home at 606 East Jefferson. Many a Matacia Family drama was played out in this structure as Tony rented out rooms to boarders. The grave of John Jouett, Sr., the father of Jack Jewett a famous Revolutionary War hero, is located to the rear of this structure (which no longer exists).
Tony’s home at 610 E. High Street (part of which he rented out to boarders including Cholly Lehrer and the priest known as ‘Doc’) is mentioned by Mary Rawlings in a footnote accompanying her 1942 edition of the 19th-century recollections of Charlottesville made by one James Alexander:
The Swan Tavern: Still standing. Now the Red Land Club, corner of Park Street and East Jefferson. Of the Jouetts, Woods’ Albemarle County, pp. 240-41, tells us: “Among the earliest entries on the Court records in 1745, is a notice of the death of Matthew Jouett, and the appointment of John Moore as his executor. It can scarcely be doubted that John Jouett, who was for many years a prominent citizen of Charlottesville, was a son of this Matthew. In 1773 John purchased from John Moore one hundred acres adjoining the town on the east and north, and at that time most likely erected the Swan Tavern of famous memory. . . . In 1790 he laid out High Street, with the row of lots on either side. . . . He kept the Swan until his death in 1802. . . . At the time of his death, and for many years after, no public place of burial in the town existed. According to the custom of that day, he was most probably buried in the yard in the rear of his house, and his remains lie somewhere in the square on which the old Town Hall is situated. . . . The general tradition about Charlottesville has always been, that it was John Jouett, Sr., who performed the exploit of outstripping Tarleton. . . . As to the grave of the elder Jouett, there is a cluster of fine old box in the rear of the Matacia home, 610 East High Street (to the rear of the Town Hall), which is believed to mark the site of the burial plot, the grave, according to belief, being within ten feet of a spot now marked by a cherry tree.”
Actually, John Jewett, Sr. who is buried in backyard of Tony Matacia’s home on 610 East High Street, was the father of John ‘Jack’ Jewett, Jr. and Matthew Jewett. It was Jack (not his father John Jewett, Sr.) who made his famous ride during the Revolutionary War in 1781 to warn Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and the Virginia Legislature convening in Charlottesville VA that British commander Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and his troops were on their way, thereby becoming the ‘Paul Revere of the South’.
RUBY LAMB/MATACIA LINGAN-Obituary
Mrs. Ruby Matacia Lingan, age 87, of New Castle, DE, died at the Christiana Hospital, Newark, DE, from complications from pneumonia on Saturday, January 3, 2004, with her beloved daughter, as in life, by her side.
Mrs. Lingan was born in Virginia, but as a newlywed moved to Delaware and always considered herself a native Delawarean. She found innovative ways to support herself and her young daughter [Janice Lingan] in an age when women’s working outside the home was novel. She worked as a designer for the former Mitchell’s Millinery in Wilmington, DE, and also in varied sales positions. During World War II, she was employed briefly as a conductor on the Pennsylvania Railroad, but found her real niche repairing and refitting aircraft. She earned a mechanic’s rating and worked first for the Bellanca Corporation in New Castle and then as a civilian employee for the Air Transport Command at the New Castle Air Base and briefly at Westover Fields in Massachusetts. Mrs. Lingan’s nickname for the ATC was “the Army of Terrified Civilians.”
Following the war, Mrs. Lingan worked in a supervisory capacity for the former Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation in Wilmington. In 1954, she went to work for General Motors in the payroll and computer units, retiring with twenty years of service. She took great delight in the advancement and progress of career opportunities for young women and supported many in their employment pursuits and goals. She gently “mothered” and lovingly recognized achievement, however small.
She was a happy partner in her own daughter’s education, professional training, and social service career. Mrs. Lingan was an amateur artist, a skillful seamstress, and was particularly talented in designing and creating crafts. First and foremost though, she was a people person. Anyone needing a loving touch was instinctively drawn to her and her response was immediate. She and her daughter loved to travel, visiting sixty different countries and all continents except one. With her love of aircraft, a highlight of her travels was a flight on the Concorde supersonic jet. In recent years, Mrs. Lingan and her daughter focused on touring this country and decided that the United States was indeed the most beautiful and divergent in the world.
Mrs. Lingan was a member of Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church, took great joy in her faith, and quietly and earnestly practiced the Golden Rule. She was a friend to many, extending help as needed without fanfare. She enjoyed young people because she was really a child at heart, sensitive and loving; children drew close to her. She was devoted to her large and extended family. The love of her life, though, was her daughter; they were an inseparable pair.
She is survived by her daughter, Janice L. Lingan; her cousins, to many of whom she was “Aunt” Ruby: Walter R. and Barbara Liptrap of Carney’s Point, NJ; Richenda, Charles and Jessica Garrison of Carney’s Point, NJ; Lynda Liptrap of Gambrills, MD; Marie Garnsey of Hanover, PA; Nancy and R.K. Higgins and John Hall of Clifton Forge, VA; Ruth and James Peters of Goshen, VA; P.M. Hall of Roanoke, VA; Rose, Kenneth, Shannon and Brandon McNeal of Millboro, VA; Patricia and Roland Cumor of Glen Rock, PA; Michele, Dennis and Jarreth Berry of Roanoke, VA; Edna Whiteside of Lynchburg, VA; and Nicole, Thomas and Corbin Stevens of Brookneal, VA; special friends, Mark and Sara Tavani of Alpharetta, GA; and Jean and George Agster of Framingham, MA; and a host of other devoted family and friends.
Mrs. Lingan was preceded in death by her mother, Mrs. Nancy L. Scharf. [aka Louise Matacia, first wife of Tony Matacia].
Friends may call 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM, Thursday, January 8, 2004 at the Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 1000 N. DuPont Parkway, Wilmington Manor, New Castle. Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 11 AM at Our Lady of Fatima R.C. Church, 801 N. DuPont Parkway, Wilmington Manor, New Castle. Interment will be in All Saints Cemetery, 6001 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Benedictine Sisters, St. Gertrude Monastery, 14259 Benedictine Lane, Ridgely, MD 21660 (410/634-2497).
Obituary of Janice L. Lingan
July 24, 1932 – September 16, 2015
Janice L. Lingan, age 83, of New Castle, DE, died on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 in the comfort of her home.
Janice was born in Charlottesville, VA to the late James F. and Ruby Matacia Lingan. When she was in preschool, the Lingan family moved to Delaware where Jan continued to reside for the rest of her life. After graduating from St. Elizabeth High School, she was awarded a scholarship to Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, KS. Jan later earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
She began her career in public social services with the Delaware Department of Public Welfare, which would later become the Department of Health and Social Services and then the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. Jan worked and advanced in many capacities: as a line social worker, caseworker, supervisor, administrator, county director and operations manager. Together with attorneys nationally involved with the case, she helped to develop amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) documentation for the 1967 suit which led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision abolishing residence requirements for federally-funded assistance programs. Named to the original board of Community Law Service – a forerunner of the present Community Legal Aid Society, Jan successfully advocated for the expansion of free legal services to Kent and Sussex counties. As a county director, she implemented a neighborhood-based deployment of staff for the first time, which served as an early model for the current State Service Center system. Under Jan’s supervision, graduate degree students piloted an adult protective services initiative that is now a regular program. She also designated and implemented the department’s original review process of the services provided to children in foster care.
Many of the department’s employees under Jan’s supervision went on to positions of authority and responsibility at both the state and national levels. They included professors, researchers, attorneys and administrators. In May of 1987, then governor, The Honorable Michael N. Castle, awarded her the Governor’s Diamond State Award in recognition of exceptionally meritorious service to Delaware. Jan retired after 40 years of dedicated employment in state social services.
Until her mother’s death in 2004, she and Jan were an inseparable pair. They loved to travel, visiting 60 different countries and all continents, except Antarctica. In later years, they toured the U.S. extensively, concluding that our nation was the most beautiful of all countries.
Jan was a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the Academy of Certified Social Workers, the AARP and a host of volunteer organizations. She was a parishioner of Our Lady of Fatima R.C. Church, took great joy in her faith and quietly and earnestly practiced the Golden Rule. Jan was a friend to many, extending help as needed without fanfare. She was devoted to her friends and large extended family.
She is survived by her cousins, to many of whom she was “Aunt Jan,” Barbara Liptrap, Richenda, Charles and Jessica Garrison, Lynda Liptrap, Nancy and R.K. Higgins, John Hall, Ruth and James Peters, P.M. Hall, Michele, Dennis and Jarreth Berry, Rose, Kenneth and Brandon McNeal, Shannon Barksdale, Nicole, Thomas and Corbin Stevens and Patricia and Roland Cumor; her godchild, Leann Murphy; special friends, Michelle and Joe Anderson, George Agster, Diane Kennedy, Theresa Sarver and Mark S. and Sara Tavani; and a host of other devoted family and friends.