Lena Borgnino died on April 30, 2004. She was 94.
Lena Borgnino died on April 30, 2004. She was 94.
Lena and her husband Louie, who died in 1982, had a prune and walnut farm in Madrone from 1943-1976. Lena helped her husband operate the farm and bring up their two sons on wonderfully prepared northern Italian cuisine. Lena also worked preparing meals for students at the old Burnett Elementary School on Monterey Highway in Madrone.
Since 1976 Lena had lived in Morgan Hill. Lena and Louie lived on San Pedro Avenue on property that once belonged to their good friends, Sebastian and Mary Mangano. After a severe stroke in 1997, Lena resided at Pacific Hills Manor in Morgan Hill where she received many welcome visits from family and friends over the years.
Lena and Louie’s parents were immigrants from Italy around the turn in the century, and they shared their Italian heritage with many friends in the Italian American Club of Morgan Hill for many years. Good food, music and dancing brought them many hours of pleasure and relaxation.
Lena was the last surviving member of the Handlebar Club, a social club of 10 couples and two single women who met monthly for more than 30 years at their homes to enjoy conversation, singing, dancing, games and good food. They held annual dinner dances in Berkeley (invitations were highly prized), annual campouts on the Eel River and gatherings at the Borgnino farm on Daugherty Avenue. The children of the members of the Handlebar Club will always cherish the wonderful times we all had together.
Lena and Louie were loving and devoted parents to their surviving sons, Gary Borgnino of Morgan Hill and Eddie Borgnino of Grants Pass, Oregon.
Lena will be missed but held in loving memory by her sons; daughters-in-law (Gabrielle and Lana); five grandchildren (Leslie Molina, Damon Borgnino, Callida Pfluger, Tess Borgnino and Tanner Borgnino); and three great-grandchildren.
