Jo Catroppa died of a devastating illness at the age of 73. Jo was very well known and esteemed in Villeneuve, his adopted city and heart.
Born January 2, 1948 in Serra San-Bruno, in southern Italy, he arrived in France with his parents in 1961 at the age of 13.
They moved to the city of Cardinal where his mother, Vincenzina, worked at the Le Prieuré hotel and police station.
Jo has always remained faithful to Villeneuve where he made many friends by participating in particular in the belotes and boules competitions. Not content with participating, he invested even more by becoming the president of the company La Boule d’or. For twenty years, he organized tournaments and held the club’s refreshment bar, on the boulodrome des allées de Verdun, at the same time as his professional activities as a site manager in a building company. He participated in the construction of many important buildings in Avignon.
On May 1, 1993, he resigned from this post to devote himself entirely to the refreshment bar, accompanied by snacks that he created and built with his own hands, on Place Charles-David, making it essential on market days and on flea market. He kept it until 2017, before passing the torch to his daughter, Laurence.
Some have not forgotten the evenings during which Jo took them to his native Calabria performing old Italian songs. He also enjoyed having his coffee downtown to meet people and chat. He had remained close to the local football scene with Patrick Cubaynes and Yvan Mercier, no doubt to maintain the link with his young brother, a promising player, broke in his youth by the disease.
The cremation ceremony takes place this Wednesday, March 24 at 3:30 p.m., at the crematorium in Avignon, and the burial of the ashes will take place in the cemetery of the city center, in the family burial, Thursday, March 25, at 3 p.m.
Free noon offers its sincere condolences to his wife and daughter.
–
