Story by Robin Seaton Jefferson Photo by Michael Schlueter
That was the case for St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano. And yet the young Italian boy would grow to become one of the longest serving city servants in St. Peters history and also its mayor. He would also go on to serve his country in Germany, marry his St. Louis sweetheart, and have three children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild in his beloved city.
Pagano was born in St. Louis to parents who could neither hear nor speak, thus he and his younger sister did not learn to speak until it was noticed by a child care provider that the two could actually hear. “Children will mimic what you teach them. It was 1944. There was no television. There was no radio in the house.
There was no phone in the house. It was a normal house but all of our communication was done by sign language,” Pagano said. “Then Mrs. Rose, a teacher in my daycare, suspected that I could hear. They did a test on me and lo and behold, they discovered, this child can hear. My mom thought it was a miracle.
Click link to read more on page 50 of Spring 2012 StreetScape Magazine.
