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March 26, 2013
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Monday, April 1, 2013 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM. Funeral Services will be held at 8:30 AM on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 from the funeral home, then to St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Clifton, where at 10 AM a Funeral Service will be held.
James K. Levetsanos, age 85 of Totowa, died on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. He had been a resident of Totowa for many years.
“Jimmy the Greek the hot dog man”, as he was known to most everyone, was proprietor of “NJ Weiner”, a hot dog establishment on Van Houten Street in Paterson, founded by his father in 1919. Their restaurant was a Paterson fixture for seventy-seven years before closing in 1996.
Jimmy graduated from Passaic Valley High School at just 16 years old, with the first graduating class at the new Passaic Valley High School. He had tried out for and made the varsity football team at Passaic Valley HS but that experience ended quickly when his mother found out. She chased him off the football field and forbade him from playing ball because the sport was dangerous. Ironically, His mother allowed him to later enlist in the U.S. Army. While attending the Merchant Marine Academy in Louisiana, Jim’s father suddenly passed away and his mother pled with him to drop out of the academy and to return home to run the family business. At this point, Jim was just nineteen years of age but Jimmy knew the business and worked very hard to provide for his family while carving niche for himself and was loved by many.
So many of Paterson’s Police and Fireman were among his regular customers that the store that it became known as the “91st Precinct”.
During the 1991 fire that destroyed the Meyer Brother’s building in downtown Paterson, Jimmy kept his shop open for three days straight to feed police and firemen who were working at the scene of the blaze. He kept the store operational to assist with keeping police and firefighters fed while at the same time, giving them a place to rest and get out of the cold conditions at no charge.
Back in the 1950’s and 60’s, Jim also worked 7 days per week to provide meals to the prisoners at the county jail.
Jim had the perfect personality to run a successful restaurant; friendly, funny, entertaining, quick with a joke, and sometimes, you just never knew what was going to come out of him so you’d better be ready. He eventually closed the restaurant and retired in 1996.
Jimmy met his wife Isabelle (Pulford) in Paterson. Her family didn’t care so much for Jim and Isabelle’s mother even threatened not to attend their wedding if they were to marry. They did marry on July 14, 1957 (with her mother in attendance) at St. Ignatius on the east side of Paterson and honeymooned at Cape May. They proved all the naysayers wrong and enjoyed fifty five years of devoted marriage to one another, bringing four lovely children into the world along the way. Over the years they made eight trips to Greece, visiting with Jimmy’s family there. They drove throughout the countryside and he even took some time to go fishing while in Greece. He loved to go fishing and would often fish at nearby lakes and the Wanaque Reservoir when he had a day off. He liked to tinker in his garden, growing vegetables and tending to his peonies. He always looked forward to spring when flowers would start to bloom and was excited to see his tulips start to pop up in recent days.
Jimmy loved his dogs and had many years which included several fox terriers, a Jack Russell terrier, a Dalmatian, a German shepherd mix, to name a few.
Jimmy is survived by his loving wife of fifty five years; Isabelle of Totowa, his four children; Gus Levetsanos, Barbara Levetsanos, James L. Levetsanos all of Totowa, and Jamie De Visser and her husband Forrest of Wayne, four grandchildren; Olivia and Alyssa De Visser of Wayne and Jessica and Korin Levetsanos of Totowa, and his cousin George Courtis of Totowa. He was predeceased by his brother Gerry Levetsanos of Totowa in 1994.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Monday, April 1, 2013 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM. Funeral Services will be held at 8:30 AM on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 from the funeral home, then to St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Clifton, where at 10 AM a Funeral Service will be held.
March 26, 2013
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Monday, April 1, 2013 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM. Funeral Services will be held at 8:30 AM on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 from the funeral home, then to St. George Greek Orthodox Church, Clifton, where at 10 AM a Funeral Service will be held.
James K. Levetsanos, age 85 of Totowa, died on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. He had been a resident of Totowa for many years.
“Jimmy the Greek the hot dog man”, as he was known to most everyone, was proprietor of “NJ Weiner”, a hot dog establishment on Van Houten Street in Paterson, founded by his father in 1919. Their restaurant was a Paterson fixture for seventy-seven years before closing in 1996.
Jimmy graduated from Passaic Valley High School at just 16 years old, with the first graduating class at the new Passaic Valley High School. He had tried out for and made the varsity football team at Passaic Valley HS but that experience ended quickly when his mother found out. She chased him off the football field and forbade him from playing ball because the sport was dangerous. Ironically, His mother allowed him to later enlist in the U.S. Army. While attending the Merchant Marine Academy in Louisiana, Jim’s father suddenly passed away and his mother pled with him to drop out of the academy and to return home to run the family business. At this point, Jim was just nineteen years of age but Jimmy knew the business and worked very hard to provide for his family while carving niche for himself and was loved by many.
So many of Paterson’s Police and Fireman were among his regular customers that the store that it became known as the “91st Precinct”.
During the 1991 fire that destroyed the Meyer Brother’s building in downtown Paterson, Jimmy kept his shop open for three days straight to feed police and firemen who were working at the scene of the blaze. He kept the store operational to assist with keeping police and firefighters fed while at the same time, giving them a place to rest and get out of the cold conditions at no charge.
Back in the 1950’s and 60’s, Jim also worked 7 days per week to provide meals to the prisoners at the county jail.
Jim had the perfect personality to run a successful restaurant; friendly, funny, entertaining, quick with a joke, and sometimes, you just never knew what was going to come out of him so you’d better be ready. He eventually closed the restaurant and retired in 1996.
Jimmy met his wife Isabelle (Pulford) in Paterson. Her family didn’t care so much for Jim and Isabelle’s mother even threatened not to attend their wedding if they were to marry. They did marry on July 14, 1957 (with her mother in attendance) at St. Ignatius on the east side of Paterson and honeymooned at Cape May. They proved all the naysayers wrong and enjoyed fifty five years of devoted marriage to one another, bringing four lovely children into the world along the way. Over the years they made eight trips to Greece, visiting with Jimmy’s family there. They drove throughout the countryside and he even took some time to go fishing while in Greece. He loved to go fishing and would often fish at nearby lakes and the Wanaque Reservoir when he had a day off. He liked to tinker in his garden, growing vegetables and tending to his peonies. He always looked forward to spring when flowers would start to bloom and was excited to see his tulips start to pop up in recent days.
Jimmy loved his dogs and had many years which included several fox terriers, a Jack Russell terrier, a Dalmatian, a German shepherd mix, to name a few.
Jimmy is survived by his loving wife of fifty five years; Isabelle of Totowa, his four children; Gus Levetsanos, Barbara Levetsanos, James L. Levetsanos all of Totowa, and Jamie De Visser and her husband Forrest of Wayne, four grandchildren; Olivia and Alyssa De Visser of Wayne and Jessica and Korin Levetsanos of Totowa, and his cousin George Courtis of Totowa. He was predeceased by his brother Gerry Levetsanos of Totowa in 1994.
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