Vito A. Cavallo, 89, owned shop here

Vito A. Cavallo of 34 Ramapoo Road, a retired butcher who was active in the old Ridgefield Taxpayers League, died on Monday, Sept. 3, at Danbury Hospital after being stricken ill at his home. He was 89 years old and the husband of Grace Livingston Cavallo.
Mr. Cavallo was born in Italy, Dec. 17, 1911, the oldest of nine children of the late Vincenzo and Josephine Parra Cavallo and the only one born in Italy. He was a year-old baby when his mother came to this country to join her husband and his father in the small town of Crabtree, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
Mr. Cavallo attended Pennsylvania schools and as a teenager, worked in the coke ovens of the Pennsylvania steel country. Later, the Cavallo family moved to the Bronx, N.Y., where he and his brothers owned and operated Five Star Butcher Shop.
While living in New York, he met his wife of 53 years. In 1956, the couple moved to Ramapoo Road. Mr. Cavallo established his own butcher shop on Main Street in the storefront now occupied by Cappiello Brothers Jewelers. He continued to operate the business into the 1960s before selling the store and becoming associated with D&S Pump of Brewster, N.Y.
In the 1970s, Mr. Cavallo became active in the Ridgefield Taxpayers League, attending many town and school meetings and speaking out against what he saw as excessive government spending. He often wrote letters to the newspaper, supporting fiscally conservative positions. A student of American history, he was well read on the subject and would quote from past leaders in his letters.
An avid gardener, Mr. Cavallo grew many varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other vegetables. He also enjoyed dancing. “At the Firemen’s Ball, he was the first man on the dance floor,” his wife Grace said. “He loved to dance.”
“He just loved life,” she added.
Mr. Cavallo was a member of St. Mary’s Church.
Besides his wife, Mr. Cavallo is survived by three sons: Vincent Cavallo and his wife, Patricia, of Garner, N.C., Anthony Cavallo of San Rafael, Calif., and James P. Toohey Jr., of Memphis, Tenn.; three daughters: Marie Russo of Danbury, Laurel Casazza and her husband, William, of Southbury, and Pamela Miller and her husband, Thomas, also of Southbury; four brothers: Gerald Cavallo of the Bronx, Orlando Cavallo of New Rochelle, N.Y., Charles Cavallo of the Bronx, and Anthony Cavallo of Lawrenceville, Ga.; four sisters: Jean Crescenzi of Mineola, N.Y., Carmela Piascentina of the Bronx, Helen Borgia of Duluth, Ga., and Tina Morea of Tampa, Fla.; two sisters-in-law: Audrey Welsh of Leeds, N.Y., and Helen Livingston of Nashua, N.H.; 12 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Another son, Vito A. Cavallo II, died on April 20, 1981, after an auto accident. He was 22.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated today Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in St. Mary’s Church. Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Contributions in Mr. Cavallo’s memory may be made to the Ridgefield Fire Department Ambulance Fund, 6 Catoonah Street, or the Tiger Hollow Sports Complex, Box 372, both Ridgefield 06877.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.