[ETSList] N2LHD News Article

[Drew Moore]

  Charlie Laterra, a natural leader

Monday, October 23, 2006
BY CLAIRE HEININGER
Star-Ledger Staff

Charlie Laterra was in command.

His sales van wasn't complete without a captain's chair. His Westfield 
deli's signature sausage could simmer only on his personal stove. And 
when cancer of his vocal chords forced a laryngectomy in 1993, he not 
only kept on talking, he was the voice of his jazz club as its annual 
master of ceremonies.

"He was unstoppable, basically," said his son, Douglas Laterra. "He was 
a one-man army."

An imposing presence and benevolent father, a jazz lover and 
irresistible salesman, Mr. Laterra died Oct. 19 after a short illness. 
He was 76.

After being stationed with the Army in Maryland during the Korean War, 
Mr. Laterra came home to Westfield, married in 1958 and took over his 
Sicilian father's business. The small South Avenue grocery store was 
soon made over into Charlie's Italian Deli, a specialty shop stacked 
with fresh cold cuts, homemade sausage, buckets of live snails and slab 
after slab of cheese.

"When you walked in the store, the smell would just practically stick to 
your clothes," his son said.

So would the sales technique.

"He had a young fellow working for him, and a man came in and said, 'I 
want 10 pounds of roast beef,'" said Fred Landy, a friend of 26 years. 
But after the teenage employee balked at the large amount and the 
customer ordered one pound instead, Mr. Laterra rewarded his worker with 
a kick in the shins.

"'If anybody asks you for 10 pounds, or 100 pounds, you give it to 
them,'" Landy recalled Mr. Laterra saying. "'You question them if they 
only want a pound -- 'Is that all?'"

"He was just so dominant," Landy said. "He had to be the leader, make no 
mistake about that."

That determination served Mr. Laterra well when he opted to sell the 
deli and become a self-employed salesman of Italian housewares, his 
family said. He customized a Chevrolet van, stocked it with merchandise 
and hawked his wares in six states.

The 1993 laryngectomy was a struggle, his son said, but didn't slow him 
for long.

"I was in the hospital after he had the operation and my legs got weak, 
and I had to kneel down," Douglas Laterra said. "He looked at me and 
held his fist up when he was hooked up to the machines. That showed how 
strong he was."

Soon, Mr. Laterra was back at the wheel of his van, using an artificial 
voice box to close sales and to communicate by ham radio with friends 
across the region.

He still nursed his passion for jazz -- with tastes ranging from Dizzy 
Gillespie to Buddy DeFranco -- as a leading member of the Jazz Record 
Masters of North Jersey, and served as the group's ladies' night emcee.

"He held the microphone to his throat and he never missed a beat," Landy 
said. "It cramped his style a little bit, (but) he was a dynamo."

In addition to his son, Mr. Laterra is survived by his wife, Margaret 
Laterra; two other children, Frances Laterra and Charlene Chavarria; two 
grandchildren, Stephen Silecchia and Megan Laterra; and a brother, John 
Laterra.

Visitation for Mr. Laterra will take place from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. 
today at the Dooley Colonial Home, 556 Westfield Ave., Westfield. 
Services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the funeral home.

"He was a big man, and he was the most generous man that we know," 
Douglas Laterra said. "There was nothing that was going to stop him."

Claire Heininger may be reached at cheininger at starledger.com or (908) 
782-8326.