Healdsburg has another centenarian, Louise Buchignani, who turned 100 on Sept. 21.
The Buchignanis, one of Healdsburg’s oldest Italian families, held an intimate private gathering this week in celebration of the family matriarch.
Buchignani was born in Willits in 1921. Her family moved to Lytton Springs when she was just a toddler and they later moved to Healdsburg.
She had two brothers and two sisters. Her and one sister are the only remaining family members, according to her son Ken Buchignani.
Her engagement to Le Buchignani was announced in the Jan. 4, 1940, issue of The Healdsburg Tribune.
“She worked around town. She worked in the Alexander Bakery, which is no longer there, and then she was hired for the Healdsburg school district and that’s where she worked until she retired,” Ken Buchignani said.
During her time at the district she worked as a school librarian. Ken Buchignani said his mom was a helper and was always very active in the community.
“She was always involved in PTAs and she was a cub scout mom. She was always willing to help anybody and she was involved in a lot of stuff in town,” he said.
In 1961, she was awarded with the Life Membership in the Congress of Parents and Teachers Association by the Healdsburg Elementary School parent teacher association.
Ken and his mom and family lived on a 43-acre ranch on West Dry Creek and later moved into the city limits in 1963. Buchignani still lives in town.
Ken Buchignani was born in 1945 and his younger brother was born five years later
On the ranch the family grew prunes and his dad worked at the lumber mill in town so he and his mother spent a lot of time working on the ranch, picking the prunes and doing chores.
“She worked hard on the ranch,” Ken Buchignani said of his mother.
He said one of his favorite things to do as a kid was to go to the local theatre and see a show.
“We used to get a 50 cents allowance a week so she’d drive us into town and we’d go to a show and that was our outing for the week,” he said.
He said they didn’t travel much since they lived on the ranch and had livestock, but a big trip for them was a drive to Lake Shasta where they picnicked.Both of his mother’s parents were Italian immigrants. He said traditional Italian recipes for items like gnocchi and biscotti have been handed down in his family over the years.
Buchignani has two grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.
