Carmelo, Francesca & Concettina Rizza Memorial Family Fund

This Memorial Scholarship is given in loving memory of longtime Wakefield residents

Carmelo Rizza, wife Francesca Butera Rizza and daughter Concettina Rizza MacDonald,

by their grandson and son lan MacDonald, and in recognition of their decades long

contribution to the community-at-large and business community of Wakefield by the

Carmelo and Francesca Rizza Family.

Carmelo (Carl) and Francesca (Frances) were married October 1923 at the Italian

Methodist Church in Boston. Carl was a custom tailor with Rizza Brothers Custom

Tailors and Frances was a homemaker. Frances came to the United States from Sicily at

5 years old. She was the eldest of 8 children, and as the eldest she was like a mother to

the younger children, being responsible for their care and upbringing. She was an

accomplished cook, gifted at handwork (crocheting , knitting, cross-stitch), an avid

reader, and very active at the Italian Baptist Chapel in Wakefield. Their daughter

Concettina (Connie) was born in 1925, and a graduate of the Wakefield High School

Class of 1943, where she studied music, piano (beginning at age 6) and played

basketball. She earned the Executive Secretarial Degree from Burdett College in Boston

in 1945. She married Richard MacDonald in 1950 at the First Baptist Church in

Wakefield, and lived in North Cambridge until relocating to Nashville, TN in 1958.

Rizza Brothers Custom Tailors opened in 1915 located at 340 Main Street in Wakefield.

It closed in 1963 after 48 years in business. For decades, custom-made suits and sport

coats were the order of the day, as well as alterations and dry cleaning. Brothers Carl,

Arthur, Charles, Harry, and John all joined the business. Upon retirement, Carl and

Frances moved to Nashville in 1965 to be close to their daughter and grandsons.

Connie and Richard were married for 54 years, and are laid to rest at the Middle

Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery. Carl and Frances were married for 51 years, and

are laid to rest in the Lakeside Cemetery in Wakefield.