Born in Chicago on April 1, 1923, Emil Garippo was the middle child of Emil and Jessie Tarsitano Garippo. The family lived on Arthington Street in Chicago’s Taylor Street Little Italy. Garippo’s paternal grandparents, from the area around Naples in Italy, and the Tarsitanos, from Calabria, lived next door to one another. Garippo grew up among grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “We had three houses, and all the family lived in them on Arthington Street,” he recalled.

Garippo’s maternal grandmother ran the family grocery store, Tarsitano’s, and as a boy, he helped make Italian sausage. “I worked for her in the store all the time,” he said. “I used to put the stuff on the shelves.” Customers bought bread at the corner bakery and brought it to his grandmother, who made delicious sandwiches. Right next door, his paternal grandmother ran the neighborhood candy store.