Son of Southern Italian Immigrants - Chicago Sun Times City Editor

Born Agostino Carmen* Sisco in Chicago to Southern Italian, Calabresi, immigrants, Fortunato "Frank" Sisco, a tailor, and Angelina Tosto, a housewife, who emigrated to America in 1908. His mother died young in 1929, when he was just 14, leaving his father to raise 5 children - 4 boys and a girl - with modest means. To help out during this difficult time, two of the boys went to live with the paternal grandparents, Giuseppe "Joseph" & Maria Sisco (née Lavorata) in Chicago.

*Some records have "Carmin".

He was a 1933 graduate of J. Sterling Morton East High School, in Cicero, IL, where he was the Sports Editor for their "Mortonian Weekly" newspaper, and a member of the Quill & Scroll, the Annual Staff, the National Senior Honor Society, and their baseball team.

He then attended Morton Junior College, also in the western Chicago burb of Cicero, just a few miles from their home in Berwyn.

Subsequently, in 1937, he earned his degree in Journalism from University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana, School of Journalism, where he was a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, a fraternity "to recognize high scholarship in the journalism field," and was also a member of their 1937 Big 10 Conference Championship Baseball Team.

He went on to become the City Editor for the Chicago Sun Times.

August was a WWII US Navy Veteran and retired Captain of the U.S. Naval Reserve. After WWII, the Navy asked him to help train Navy officers in journalism . He was also a retired President of the Chicago Council United States Navy League, and an active member of Chicago Press Veterans.

He was the beloved husband of the late, Nell Lancianese, whom he married in 1940 (see wedding announcement on her memorial). They had three children: August, Jr., Joseph & Catherine. He was the brother of Joseph, Paul, George, and the late, Mary Catrambone.

One brother, George, was a suburban Chicago bricklayer, and two brothers went on to prestigious careers with the press and government.

His brother, Paul Carmen Sisco, followed in his big brother's footsteps, and was also the Sports Editor for the Mortonian and a University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Journalism grad, who went on to become a well-known UPI Chicago sports writer. He also played on two minor league baseball teams which were Chicago Cubs affiliates, shortly after college. By 1963, in addition to being a Chicago UPI sports writer, he was the the Chicago UPI News Film Bureau Chief, and by 1973 he was UPI's Washington Bureau Chief of the UPI Film Divisions.

The afternoon of 11/22/63 UPI flew Paul Sisco out of Chicago to Dallas, along with Chicago UPI sound engineer Oliver Oakes, and a young, recently hired, UPI Chicago Cameraman, Isadore "Izzy" Bleckman, to cover the JFK Assassination. They filmed in the jam-packed 3rd floor DPD hallway outside the Homicide Office, and also during the so-called, Midnight Press Conference, in which the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was paraded before a roomful of cameras and reporters, who shouted questions at a visibly shaken Oswald. Two days later Sisco and Bleckman were filming the transfer of the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the DPD basement, when they became very close eyewitnesses to his assassination by Jack Ruby* (Oakes was sent to record an interview of Gov. John Connally at Parkland Hospital during this time). Their father, Fortunato's 1964 obituary says Paul was "the Sports Editor for "The LIFE". At first I thought this was referring to LIFE Magazine, but I finally realized it was referring to the Berwyn daily newspaper named, "The LIFE" which also published under the name "Berwyn LIFE" and "LIFE"). Bleckman went on to have a now legendary career with UPI, and then as the beloved cameraman for CBS's "On the Road with Charles Kuralt" and "Sunday Morning" for 3 decades, and Sisco, was eventually promoted to Chief of the UPI Washington D.C. Film Division.

*I have just identified Paul Sisco next to Bleckman, with his Bolex camera in hand, in the DPD basement, in a photo taken in the aftermath of the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, by Dallas Morning News Chief Photographer, Jack Beers.

Another brother Dr. Joseph John Sisco, went on to become a legendary U.S. Diplomat in five administrations, and was Assistant Secretary of State starting in LBJ's administration. During the Carter and Nixon administrations again as Assistant Secretary of State, he was the diplomat who played a major role in then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. In addition he was President of American University for four years.

Rest in Peace...

~Linda (48291572)