By Marvin Pave

After working in a brick factory in England and as a construction laborer in Canada to earn money that would help expand his family's farm in Montefalcione, Italy, 28-year-old Beniamino Martignetti made a side trip to Boston. That 1956 visit with his uncle, Anthony, the founder of Martignetti Liquors, changed his life and the lives of many others. Instead of returning to Italy, Mr. Martignetti stayed in Boston and became reacquainted with Elena Iantosca, who also had been born and raised in Montefalcione.

They married six months later and settled in an apartment on Endicott Street in the North End. Using his kitchen table as a desk, Mr. Martignetti started a construction company that evolved into a masonry supply business, Martignetti Enterprises, which is now run out of Woburn and Amesbury. Mr. Martignetti, who was passionate about employing newly arrived immigrants from Montefalcione, and many from the Endicott Street neighborhood, died Dec. 24 in Tufts Medical Center several days after falling in his home. He was 87 and a longtime Medford resident.

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Source: http://www.bostonglobe.com/