Funeral services were held Monday at St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church for longtime Fordoche resident Joe Cashio, who died Jan. 31.
He was 94. Cashio was the oldest man in Fordoche at the time of his death. He was well-known throughout the parish and was considered a “self-made man.”
“Mr. Joe-Joe was just a good, downhome guy,” Fordoche Mayor Teddy Gros said.
“He was active at the ballpark and was a true pillar of his community, and at home he was always working in his garden.”
In a 2021 feature in The Banner, he reminisced about his humble beginnings.
Cashio was one of 10 children in a poor family. His father was a Sicilian immigrant, but his mother took up most of the task of raising the family.
“We were poor … nine of us in the house, no money coming in, so all we ate was what people gave us off the table,” he said.
Cashio got his “big break” when his brother-in-law – iron worker Leon “Bull” Pizzolato – helped him land a job as an ironworker.
Cashio’s work with Baton Rouge Local Iron Workers Union 623 put him on the job at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, the Chase Bank (formerly LNB) Building on Florida at North Fourth Street and the Southern University pedestrian bridge overlooking Interstate 110.
He also spent three years working on construction of the River Bend Nuclear Power Plant in St. Francisville in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“It’s funny to be able to pass those structures and tell people that I helped build them,” Cashio said.
“It makes me feel proud to have been a part of it, and it has given me a great sense of accomplishment.”
