Barbara Antionette Felicetti: A living testament to service

“If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making others' lives better,” is a quote from Will Smith. Barbara Antionette Felicetti is a woman who has not wasted much time during her life.

Serving can manifest itself in a number of ways. Some say they feel called to serve, some are obligated to serve, and there are a few ingrained with the urge to help others. Felicetti is a woman who has led a life of all kinds of service. Born in 1923, the 100-year-old served her country as a Rosie the Riveter, her family as a caretaker, and her neighborhood as an excellent cook who made everything from scratch.

Born in Baltimore, Felicetti eventually joined the war effort at the Broening Highway General Motors Plant, also called Baltimore Assembly. Converted from a car and truck production plant in 1942, the factory processed and shipped military parts around the world as well as assembling fuselages for Grumman carrier-base aircraft. Felicetti and other women were a major reason why the U.S. claimed victory on both fronts of the war.

Following the Allied victory, Felicetti took a job working for a telephone company.

“I just worked all my life. I can’t speculate why I’m still here,” Felicetti said.

After working at the telephone company, she worked for the Social Security Administration for about 13 years. Despite the tremendous amount of changes that occurred during her lifetime, Felicetti said she hasn’t noticed too much.

“I guess I was so busy working to pay much attention to change,” Felicetti said. “Helicopters and cellphones, that stuff’s all new, I guess. I don’t have a cellphone, but my daughter does. When you have a good family and kids, you just stay with them.”

Felicetti’s work wasn’t done when she came home from working her jobs, either. Marrying her husband following the war – he was enlisted – Felicetti married into a proud Italian family.

“When I got married, I didn’t know how to cook. I got all my recipes from my sister-in-law, who was a great cook. My husband and she were Italian, so we had spaghetti every Sunday,” Felicetti said.

Celeste Keim, Felicetti’s daughter, said her mom made everything from scratch.

“I can still see her with that noodle machine,” she said. “Daddy was first-generation Italian, his parents came right off the boat, so if you put a can or jar of sauce in front of us, we’d probably throw it in the trash.”

Keim said while her mother wasn’t as much of a baker, she was exceptional as a cook and knew how to throw things together to make a delicious meal.

“I remember she would make us leftover pork chops, and she chopped up potatoes for mashed potatoes, made string beans with onion, and used the pork’s juices,” Keim said. “You would have thought it was a gourmet meal the way we gobbled that up.”

Keim said the whole neighborhood was aware of and appreciated Felicetti’s cooking. 

“Every once in a while I’ll post on Facebook about a past Easter dinner or something and the guys that I grew up with all comment and say, ‘That woman was great,’” Keim said.

Welcoming the neighborhood like family was just the way it was at the Felicetti home.

“I always had people at my house,” Felicetti said.

Keim noticed how dedicated her mom was to her immediate and extended family growing up, and it made an impression on her about how to treat family.

“My one cousin said, ‘If it wasn’t for your mother, we wouldn’t have had food on the table,’” Keim said, adding that her mom never kept score or asked for something in return.

Felicetti adopted such tremendous responsibility at an early age as the oldest of her siblings.

“In those days, people had 10 kids, and the oldest always took care of the little ones until they went on their own,” Felicetti said.

The 100-year-old couldn’t live carefree in a life filled with so much responsibility. While she loved caring for her family, she did admit they caused her to worry quite a bit.

“I just took care of them and worried about them, which is why I got all this gray hair!” Felicetti said.

Keim said her mother was happiest when she was doing for others and really taking care of other people.

“Family comes first, and when people don’t get along with family, that’s not a good thing,” Felicetti said.

These days, Felicetti enjoys being as active as she can be. Living with Keim in Angola by the Bay, she enjoys being outside with nature and going on walks with her daughter. While she doesn’t think she’ll make it another 100, she is very proud of her family and appreciates the care they now give to her. 

“My husband went to war, came home, we got married, and the years just flew by. I don’t know where they went. Just zoomed,” Felicetti said.

They say time flies when you’re having fun.