Ray Lazzini lived all his life in Santa Rosa, and nearly all his life he sold folks groceries and served his famous polenta stew to oftentimes hundreds of people at feeds that raised money for causes throughout the community. Lazzini and his wife, Kathy, had operated their family grocery store, Ray’s Food Center at Dutton and Hearn avenues, for 50 years when they retired in 2007.

“Fifty years,” Ray Lazzini said then. “It’s time.” He was 77 when he quit working at the store but kept cooking for fundraising dinners. Also in retirement he set off with his wife to do his first serious traveling since the Korean War era, when he spent long stints at sea on aircraft carriers.