Frank Tantone Sr., sanitation worker whose sons found 'American success story' on Long Island, dies at 90

A New York City sanitation worker, Frank Tantone Sr. took a weekend job as a maître d' so he and his factory worker wife, Mary, could move to Long Island in order to give their children a better life.

And on the Island their two sons, Frank Jr. and Rich, moved into high posts — Rich became an executive at the Royal Bank of Canada and Frank Jr. has served as a Suffolk Family Court judge since his eight-year stint as the Islip Town Republican chairman ended in 2016.

"He loved his family. My mother and he devoted their whole lives to us," said Frank Jr. "It’s a classic American success story ... a garbage man raises two children and they were very successful. He worked two jobs to make sure we had everything we needed."

Frank Tantone Sr. died on March 18, roughly an hour after being transferred to hospice care. He had turned 90 just nine days earlier and had been "struggling with some heart issues," Frank Jr. said, though his father essentially died of old age.

Both of Tantone's sons described their father as a man who put his family ahead of himself, beginning with when he moved the family from Queens to Ronkonkoma in 1970.

"He did a massive commute into the Bronx every day so that we could move out of the congestion of the city and have a better quality of life for the kids," Rich Tantone said. "He kind of sacrificed himself for that."

Tantone worked as a garbage man until 1995. But rather than retiring in full, he worked as a bus driver in the Sachem Central School District for another two decades.

Rich Tantone said a friend of his described his father as "one of the nicest, gentlest men I’ve ever met."

"He was very non-judgmental, he gave everyone the benefit of the doubt [and he was] very forgiving," Rich said.

Tantone dipped his toe into politics in the late aughts, when his son Frank Jr. became Islip Town Republican chairman. The elder Tantone got out of politics when his son resigned as from that post to become a county court judge in 2016.

In 2014, Tantone lost his wife, Mary, to lung cancer at age 76 and, in 2019, his daughter, Veronica, died.

Rich described those losses as "devastating" for his father. "I don’t know if he ever got over that," Rich Tantone said, but added that his father was never lonely because he surrounded himself with friends from St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Ronkonkoma and his grandchildren.

"He was always very family focused, especially with the grandchildren. He was very close to all five of his grandchildren," Rich said. "He was also very focused and spent a good amount of his time at St. Joseph’s in Ronkonkoma after his retirement."

Tantone lived independently at his longtime home in Ronkonkoma until December, when he was going in and out of medical facilities as his health deteriorated.

Despite losing his wife and daughter and his recent medical issues, Frank Sr. had a "long, happy life. He was very happy," Rich said. "He managed to carry on and have a nice productive social life while they were gone. He made a lot of friends at church."

Tantone is survived by his sons, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

His wake will be at Maloney Funeral Home in Ronkonkoma on Sunday from 2-7 p.m., and on Monday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. His funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St Joseph Church in Ronkonkoma. He will be buried at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.

The Tantone family requested donations be made to Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.