Frank “Cheech” DeJoy was the world’s best frontman, said his son Marty DeJoy, referring to his dad’s stints as a greeter at various restaurants the family owned.
Cheech DeJoy died Feb. 28 at a Pueblo hospital. He was 78.
He was such a fixture in Pueblo that about 700 people attended his funeral.
DeJoy, whose career was working at the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill in Pueblo, had a lot of other pursuits, said his son.
Various members of the DeJoy family owned restaurants and bars in the Pueblo area for years, and Cheech DeJoy invested in those his sons owned and greeted people at the door.
He loved the business, but his wife, Lena Mae, always said the restaurant business was “too risky,” and she preferred that her husband keep his job at the steel mill, which he did for 35 years.
However, he did own the Red Dolly Casino in Black Hawk for about five years.
The restaurant history began with Cheech DeJoy’s brother and father opening Gaetano’s restaurant in Blende, a town near Pueblo.
Over the years, various aunts, uncles and cousins owned cafes and restaurants: the Riverside Bar and Grill, Cosimo Jack’s, 50’s West Bar and Grill, the DeJoy Deli, the Vita Bella Restaurant and the Cactus Flower. The Cactus Flower is owned and operated today by Dena DeJoy.
“Everybody liked my dad,” said Marty DeJoy. “He was just one of those guys that once you’d met him, you thought you’d known him forever.”
Cheech DeJoy was a soft touch for people needing something, especially money. “He’d loan money even to strangers,” said his lifelong friend, Mickey Giarratano of Pueblo.
“He never thought anyone was beyond help,” said Giarratano. “I would often tell him after he’d loaned money that he’d never see that guy again.”
Cheech DeJoy would reply, “That’s OK.”
Few repaid him, said Giarratano.
DeJoy loved traveling and loved Las Vegas, where he specialized in craps.
Just days before DeJoy died, he and Giarratano and Giarratano’s wife, Josephine, were planning to go to Albuquerque and make a stop at a casino on the way down.
Frank A. DeJoy was born in Pueblo on Oct. 2, 1927, and from a very young age was called “Cheech” as a nickname for Francisco, the Italian name for Frank, Marty DeJoy said.
Cheech DeJoy graduated from Pueblo Central High School. On Oct. 9, 1948, he married Lena Mae Martinelli, who came from the Goat Hill section of Pueblo, an area settled by Italians. She died in 1985.
DeJoy was a Navy veteran.
In addition to his sons, he is survived by four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to reporting errors, it indentified the wrong owner of the Cactus Flower restaurant. The Pueblo eatery is owned by Dena DeJoy. It also misidentified the location of Red Dolly Casino, which is in Black Hawk.
