John Rao

• Death Notes
  • NEWPORT — John C. Rao Jr., 84, a longtime prominent real-estate developer in Providence and elsewhere in Rhode Island, died Monday at Newport Hospital.
    
    Rao, who lived in Newport, was a former member of the Providence Redevelopment Agency and of the Coastal Resources Management Council.
    
    Rao was born in Providence, a son of the late John and Assunta [Pelosi] Rao. After he graduated from La Salle Academy in 1945, he joined the Navy and was stationed on Guam.
    
    Discharged after World War II ended, Rao went into the insurance business. In a 1978 interview, he said his father wanted him to go to college, “but I was too impatient to get going.”
    
    He drove a truck for the family beer distributorship and, in 1950, got married in a tuxedo rented from a company in the Strand Building on Washington Street in Providence. He later bought the building, which had housed the Strand Theater, and renovated it. Lupo’s nightclub now occupies the building.
    
    His first purchase in real estate came in 1953 when he bought a three-story building on Smith Hill.
    
    “I saved for it, and cashed in a Christmas club,” he said, “and scraped up $750 for a down payment.” Some years later he purchased about 9 acres on Mount Pleasant Avenue for $47,000. “The big real estate people laughed at me,” he said, “because about three acres of it was a hole 18 feet deep. But I had it filled and sold 34 house lots on it. With that, I had the strength.”
    
    His daughter, Leslie Warren of Greenville, said her father bought “three rundown, ramshackle buildings” on Williams Street in Newport and created a shopping plaza. In the mid-1990s, he bought a building on the Wampanoag Trail in East Providence and opened a restaurant called Portabella’s. He sold it after a few years and, in 2000, he opened another Portabella’s on Broadway in Newport.
    
    Five years ago, his daughter said, Rao renovated what had been Joe’s Bar & Grill in Portsmouth and opened Cool Scoops, which sold Italian ice cream.
    
    In 1978, he acquired the Strand Building, then sold it to his two daughters and another partner, who ran it for 30 years.
    
    Warren described her father as “semi-retired.” At the time of his death, he was on the verge of closing on the Pleasant View Diner in Greenville with his granddaughter, Laura Branca of Cumberland. The closing was to have taken place Friday.
    
    He is survived by his wife, Verna (Tramonti) Rao, two daughters, Leslie Warren of Greenville, and Hilary Rao, of Lexington, Mass., six grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
    
    The funeral will be held Friday at 10 a.m. in St. Mary’s Church, Newport. Burial will be in St. Columba’s Cemetery, Middletown. The Perry McStay Funeral Home, 2255 Pawtucket Ave., East Providence, is in charge of arrangements.
    
    RAO, JOHN C., JR. 84 of Williams Street died Monday January 31, 2011 at Newport Hospital. He was the husband of Verna (Tramonti) Rao to whom he was married sixty years. He was born in Providence a son of the late John C. Rao, Sr. and Assunta (Pelosi) Rao. John was a Commercial Realtor and Developer for most of his life. He was a board member of the Providence Redevelopment Agency and Chairman of the Catholic Charity Drive. He was a communicant of St. Mary's Church and was inducted into the Knights of Malta. John was a businessman and a civic leader who was very instrumental in revitalizing the business community. His greatest joy was his family. Besides his wife he leaves two daughters, Leslie R. Warren and her husband John of Smithfield, Hilary Rao and her husband Steven Cramer of Lexington, Ma; six grandchildren, Jennifer Anderson, Katherine, Laura and John Branca and Charlotte and Ethan Cramer; two great grandchildren, Brandon Anderson and Anthony Lentini, two sisters, Lee Paolino and Josephine Murchelano and two brothers, Carmine Rao and Raymond Rao. 

Click here for details of John's family with Verna Tramonti

---

This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Rao families, or surname index of Rao pedigrees or report summary Rao heritage from 'My Ancestors and Relatives'.
Family History.

---

© 2006 GenoPro Inc. All Rights Reserved.