MANASQUAN — March 30 meant one day closer to the spring season for most residents in Manasquan, but the day meant more for the Raffetto clan, who celebrated their mother Vera’s 100th birthday in the town in which she’s spent the last century.
Vera was born in Manasquan on March 30, 1925 at 115 Main St., a building that still belongs to the Raffetto family today. Vera’s father worked as a cobbler and started a shoe store, Raffetto’s Shoes, which operated for 107 years across three generations before ultimately closing in 2014.
Vera’s mother and father immigrated to the United States from a small village in northern Italy in 1907, coming through Ellis Island and later settling in Manasquan, because it reminded Vera’s parents of their village in Italy. The couple had six children – four boys and two girls.
“My mother would always tell us that neither of her parents had much formal education but insisted that their children would all go to school and graduate from college,” Ted Raffetto, Vera’s son, said.
All six children graduated from Manasquan High School and later went on to become two doctors, one dentist, one attorney and two school teachers, one of whom was Vera. Joe, the oldest child, graduated in 1926, Vera graduated in 1942 and the youngest sibling, Charlie, graduated in 1944.
The Raffetto legacy was cemented at Manasquan High School in the summer of 2017 with the renovation of the new media center – named the Charles Raffetto Media Center after he bequeathed funds to the high school, which had allowed him to use some of the school grounds as a garden, Ted said. After one generation of Raffetto’s successfully graduating Manasquan High School, Vera had six children of her own, and the legacy continued as all six went on to attend Manasquan High School. Several of her grandchildren and now two great-grandchildren now attend the school, likely with more to follow in the future.
Vera graduated from Montclair State College with a degree in education and began her career at Asbury Park High School, where some of her students had just returned from service in World War II, later telling her children that she would get asked out on dates by students and would never agree. She also taught in the Manasquan School District for a number of years, Ted said.
As a sports enthusiast, she attended Manasquan High School’s boys and girls basketball games well into her 90s. She captained the cheerleaders while at the high school, fostering a love for hoops, and often played kickball and wiffleball with her children and grandchildren on their street.
Vera’s children unanimously agreed that at family gatherings she often proudly remarked, “Look what your dad and I started.”
Vera and her husband Theodore, who died in 2008, have six children, 23 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren. She credits her century of life to her love of family and wonderful friends. Vera’s family gathered together, fittingly, at Manasquan High School in the Charles Raffetto Media Center on her 100th birthday on March 30, celebrating the birthday and the Raffetto’s storied family history in Manasquan.
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