Following the brief AP article from
The New York Times, is a story that appeared
in a Wyoming newspaper in 1966, almost
40 years ago, that gives a "homespun"
insight into the type of man that
makes one proud!
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Thanks to Pat
Gabriel
TENO RONCALIO, 87, A WYOMING CONGRESSMAN, DIES
The New York
Times
April 27, 2003
By The Associated
Press
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo., April 22 — Teno Roncalio, Wyoming's first five-term United States representative, died on March 30. He was 87.The eighth of nine children of Italian immigrants, Mr. Roncalio was born on March 23, 1916, in Rock Springs.
He joined the Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor and earned a Silver Star for gallantry in the Normandy invasion.After the war, Mr. Roncalio earned a law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1947 and became chairman of the state's Democratic Party in 1957.
He married Cecilia Waters Domenico in 1962 and won his first bid for the House in 1964.He gave up the seat in a failed bid for the Senate, but regained it in 1970. He won re-election in 1972, 1974 and 1976. He did not seek re-election in 1978 and was succeeded in the House by Dick Cheney, now the vice president.
Mr. Roncalio
was a delegate to four Democratic national conventions and also served
two years as a national Democratic committeeman.In the House, Mr. Roncalio
championed the idea that the environment and economic development were
not mutually exclusive. He and Gov. Cliff Hansen succeeded in getting Wyoming
more money for minerals mined on federal land there; the state's share
of mineral royalties rose to 50 percent from 37 percent.
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TENO RONCALIO—U.
S. CONGRESSMAN FROM WYOMING
Mabel E. Brown
(Written and Published in 1966)
The story of Teno Roncalio, Wyoming’s lone Representative in Congress, reads like a Horatio Alger, Jr. “Story For Boys”.
Teno was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, March 23, 1916. His parents were Italian immigrants. His father, Frank Roncaglio was a coal miner. In order to provide his family with more of the good things of life, Frank Roncaglio also salvaged and sold junk. Teno was one of Frank and Ernesta's family of nine children.
Teno Roncalio was christened Celeste Domenico Roncaglio. The nickname “Teno” was given him by his schoolmates in Rock Springs. Roncaglio was changed to Roncalio because it is so much easier to say upon first sight. The pronunciation is the same. Ron-call-io.
Legend has it (and the story of Teno is a legend in his home town) that Teno obtained his first job, operating a push cart at the age of five years. The next year he took over a shoe shine stand in a local barber shop. By the time he was sixteen years old, Teno had passed the Wyoming Barber Board of Examiners and was the holder of a Journeyman Barber’s Union card.
Teno worked in the barber shop throughout his high school years but after graduation went to work on the Rock Springs Rocket as a combination reporter and advertising salesman. For six years Teno worked for the newspaper, gaining much valuable experience. In 1938 he entered the University of Wyoming as a Journalism and Pre Law student.
To help out with expenses, Teno and a Rock Springs buddy, Frank Larrabaster, made stencil duplicates of basketball schedules and sold advertising to go with them.
During his years at the University, Teno ran a snack bar in a dormitory, waited tables and washed dishes at Annie Moore’s boarding house, tended furnace, shoveled snow and scrubbed “acres” of floors. Any job was a good job as long as it helped pay the college expense.
Teno was a great
admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His entrance into politics
was a result of this admiration. He joined the Young Democrats of Laramie
and was elected to an office. He soon was a delegate to the Wyoming State
Conven-
tion of Young
Democrats.
During his second year at the University Teno ran for and was elected to the Student Body Presidency. He was also business manager for the University’s weekly newspaper The Branding Iron.
In 1941, Teno
left the University to work for Joseph C. O’Mahoney in Washington, D.
C. He enrolled in Catholic University as a law student, attending night
classes and working days. In 1942 he resigned as Research Clerk in the
Senate and enlisted in the United States Infantry. He requested overseas
duty and was sent to North Africa with the First Infantry Division in March
of 1943. He spent the remaining thirty-three months of World War II in
the 18th Infantry Regiment, First Division, participating in the beach
head invasion at Gela, Sicily on July 10, 1943, and at Omaha Beach,
June 1944. Teno
also saw action in seven campaigns in North Africa, Italy, France, Central
Europe and Germany and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action.
He was discharged as a Captain in 1945.
The war over, Teno returned to the University at Laramie, Wyoming where he acquired a degree in Law. In 1949, Teno was admitted to the practice of law in the State of Wyoming.
Between the years of 1949 and 1961, Teno was engaged in a variety of pursuits. He practiced law in Cheyenne serving as a prosecutor. He edited the Wyoming Labor Journal, helped found several banks, including the Cheyenne National at Cheyenne, and was a motion picture exhibitor in two southern Wyoming towns. In 1956, Teno was admitted to practice in the Federal Courts and became president of the Laramie County Bar Association.
In 1957, Roncalio
was elected Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee. In 1959,
at a dinner in honor of the then Senator John F. Kennedy, Teno said that
if the Democratic party leaders were to have courage enough to nominate
Kennedy
for President,
he would be elected and would give America the leadership which would match
the challenge of our times.
Teno was one
of Kennedy’s most enthusiastic backers and after he was elected to the
Presidency, Mr. Kennedy rewarded his efforts with an appointment as Chairman
of the United States Section of the International Commission (U. S. and
Canada).
Teno was also
appointed a member of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin.
He resigned from both positions to become a candidate for U. S. Representative
from Wyoming. In 1964, he was elected to that office, unseating his opponent,
the veteran Republican legislator, William Henry Harrison.
The Wyoming Congressman
has received not a few honors both at home and in Washington. In 1957,
Teno was cited by the B’nai B’rith for Mentorious Service in Human
Relations and Advancement of Citizen Responsibility. In 1965, he was
named “outstanding
Freshman Congressman” by the Capitol Hill Young Democrats and back home
in Wyoming, he was given the title “Tutelary Saint” by the Gottsche
Rehabilitation Center in Thermopolis, he was so named because of the service
he
had rendered
to the Center’s development. This year, 1966, Teno was named to lifetime
membership in the Officers Candidates Hall of Fame at Ft. Benning, Georgia.
Most men begin to slow down a bit when they reach age forty, not so Teno. He learned to ski and to fly after that age. He is considered an excellent skier and holds a multi-engine flying rating. It was also after age forty that Teno married. He and his wife the former Cecelia Waters Domenico have two sons, Teno Frank, 3 years old and John, age two. Teno also has four foster children, Lou, Carol, Joan and Dave Domenico.
Teno keeps fit “working out” in the Congressional gymnasium. He enjoys playing tennis, swimming and baseball. Gardening is another of his pleasures and a small greenhouse at his home in Cheyenne affords him many moments of satisfaction.
Mr. Roncalio is a charter member and an organizer of the Family YMCA at Cheyenne, of the Cheyenne Symphony and Concert Association, member of the Esther Morris Memorial Commission, Southern Rocky Mountain Ski Association, American Bar Association, American Judicature Association and Area President of the Lawyer-Pilots Association.....
Teno
Roncalio
http://www.roncalio.com/TenoBP4web_dir/TenoBP4web_s.htm
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Teno Roncalio
- U.S. Congressional Biography
"RONCALIO, Teno,(1916-2003)
A Representative from Wyoming; born in Rock Springs,Sweetwater County,
Wyo., March 23, 1916; attended the public schools;employee of the United
States Senate Library, 1940-1941; enlisted in theUnited States Army (Infantry)
and served overseas in North Africa, Sicily,and Europe, in the First Division,
December 1941-March 1946; graduated from the University of Wyoming at Laramie
in 1947; admitted to the Wyoming bar in 1947 and commenced the practice
of law in Cheyenne, Wyo.; deputy prosecuting attorney of Laramie County,
1950-1956; chairman of the WyomingDemocratic Central committee, 1957-1961;
delegate to Democratic National Conventions, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968;
national committeeman 1969 and 1970; engaged in banking; member of the
International Joint Commission, United States-Canada, 1961-1964; elected
as a Democrat to the Eighty-ninthCongress (January 3, 1965-January 3, 1967);
was not a candidate for renomination to the Ninetieth Congress, but was
an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1966;
elected in 1970 to the Ninety-second Congress; reelected to the three succeeding
Congresses and served from January 3, 1971, until his resignation December
30, 1978; was not a candidate for reelection in 1978 to the Ninety-sixth
Congress; resumed the practice of law; served as Special Master in Wyoming’s
Big Horn adjudication of Indian Water Rights, 1979-1982."
*(Fromhttp://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000421)
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