Vicente Rivera

Vicente Rivera, a son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. What can my sisters and I say about a man who has taken us from diapers to perfumes? He was and will always be our first love! You see our dad was born in a small town called Ciales in Puerto Rico to Anselmo Rivera and Emilia Rivera Marrero. Vicente was the second child in a sibship of 5 children. He grew up a humble man enjoying music, going to school and working the land. He joined the USA Army in 1945 and was proud to service his country. Dad fell in love with a young woman in his town named Rosa Maria Rivera. Before he married her he decided to see the world a bit and came to the USA to work the tomato fields in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He worked for a group of Mennonites who wanted him to get married, and come back with his wife to run their farms in Pennsylvania. Vicente liked working for the Mennonites but was interested in big city living. He did go back to Puerto Rico married his sweetheart Rosin and after a short honeymoon came to settle in Chicago, IL. In Chicago he raised his three daughters Rosa A. (Nancy) Rivera-Mizzoni, Celeste A. Rivera, and Danette Rivera-Crespo. Dad was proud of his girls. Dad loved baseball aside from his family and long history of working for Cook County Hospital. He played baseball every chance dad had. In fact mom would say that the neighborhood kids would come knocking at our door asking, can Mr. Vicente come out and play ball; as if dad was a little boy himself. You see our dad was the soft voice behind moms outgoing personality but he enjoyed her zest for life and after she passed he spoke often of missing that part of her in his life. Over the years dad worked hard to make sure his daughters were all college educated independent women. Dad was a renaissance man in his own right. Dad was also a father to many of our cousins, friends and neighbors. He could engage any kid by playing baseball with them and became a trusted male figure in their lives. He was also an avid story teller who enjoyed history and baseball data. Dad could talk about any subject with an ease and comfort of someone who had traveled the world, yet his circle was Puerto Rico and the USA. When it came to baseball he could rattle off any fact about any player in any league with the ease of stating his own name. In fact we joked that he was better than Google when it came to baseball facts. In fact we can still see him sitting in front of the TV watching a baseball game, with a radio next to him playing another baseball game and the transistor radio in his hand up to his ear playing a third baseball game. Now if that isn’t the epitome of fanaticism we do not know what is! As girls my sisters and I would choose to follow dad to play baseball than to go with our mom to pray the rosary and boy was that an issue. Dad enjoyed the fact that we choose baseball like him. He would proudly say to the neighbors my girls and I are going to play baseball want to come? Yes our dad was many things to many people but most of all he was a humble man who loved simple pleasures and was not afraid to show it. We love you daddy for always!

Vicente Rivera

April 19, 1926 - September 22, 2017