Verna Mae and Joseph A. Casacio Sr.

Joseph Anthony Casacio, Sr. (1906-1979) emigrated to the United States from Italy as a boy of 13. He trained as a stone carver and worked as a masonry contractor in South Jersey in the 1920s and 30s. Joe married Verna Mae Rizzuto of Woodbury New Jersey, the daughter of Italian immigrants, in 1939.

The couple moved to the Mayfair section of Northeast Philadelphia in 1941, where Joe established Revere Suburban Realty, named for the office location on Revere Street. Verna Mae, while raising six children, still found time to work as her husband’s secretary and office manager. In the 1960s, Joe’s general contracting and real estate sales business expanded to property development and management, taking advantage of the rapidly developing Northeast, which experienced an influx of new residents seeking attractive and affordable housing.

Joe Casacio was known as a successful and innovative businessman and a loving father who encouraged his six children to study, work hard, and value family above all else. Verna Mae is remembered as a devoted mother and grandmother and a creative artist. Warm and generous to all, when she wasn’t caring for family or cooking up a storm in the kitchen, could be found volunteering for one of the many causes dear to her heart.

The Revere Charitable Fund for Neighborhood Action, established in 2026 by descendants of Verna Mae and Joseph A Casacio Sr, is the natural extension of an enduring multi-generational legacy of work ethic, family, faith, love, and gratitude. The Fund’s principal focus areas of Housing, Children and Youth, and Immigrant Rights reflect the life and values of this remarkable couple.

We invite you to become a part of our mission.