Rockford native known for gardening, helping grow women's bowling dies at 80

John Falzone spent decades managing Rockford area bowling centers and promoting the Ladies Professional Bowlers Tour.

He was also a master gardener, an avid traveler and a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather.

Falzone died Monday in Mexico following a short illness.

He was 80.

More:Cherry Valley's oldest business sprucing up

John Falzone was raised in south Rockford and attended West High School.

He met his future wife, Kathy, by chance, according to the couple’s daughter, Bonnie Falzone-Capriola.

“Back in the early 60s, my dad got his first car, and he and a buddy called a pay phone at one of the drive-ins around town,” Falzone-Capriola said. “They were trying to find a certain friend to go cruising. My mom and her girlfriend answered the phone and they said ‘We’ll go with you’. That’s how they met.”

The encounter at the drive-in blossomed into a romance and eventually a marriage which lasted 61 years and produced three children.

Rockford native Benny Frisella met Falzone when the two were in sixth grade at Barbour School on the city’s southwest side.

The two companions spent countless hours at the old State and Madison Bowling Alley.

“We set pins for the (bowling) leagues,” Frisella said. “We were paid 10 cents a lane. When you have five people on each lane bowling three games, it adds up. We earned pocket change to buy ice cream, candy and go to the movies.”

Frisella and Falzone developed a bond that lasted a lifetime.

Falzone was best man in Frisella’s wedding and named his son, Benny, in Frisella’s honor. Both men are godfather’s to each other’s sons.

“He’d give you the shirt off of his back,” Frisella said. “He was the kind of guy that if you needed something, he would do the best he could for you.”

Falzone’s love of bowling as an adolescent helped guide him down a career path.

In the late 1960s, Falzone and his friend, Nick Segalla, published a newspaper called The Greater Rockford Bowlers Journal, which Falzone distributed to bowling centers around town. He also co-hosted “Bowling for Dollars” on WREX-TV.

“He worked at several of the local bowling centers,” said Don Carter Lanes owner John Sommer. “He ran Cherry Bowl for a long time and then got involved with trying to help the women’s tour and ended up doing that for about 25 years.”

Falzone was instrumental in securing television coverage for the Ladies Professional Bowlers Tour, which led to an increase in the number of tournaments held each year.

He is a member of the Women’s Professional Bowling Hall of Fame.

After retiring from the bowling business, Falzone and his son, Benny, purchased Cherry Valley Garden Center, formerly known as Enders Greenhouse.

“Gardening was always my dad’s passion,” Falzone’s daughter, Bonnie, said. “When he was in the bowling business, he’d come home and would head out to the garden and work there until it was dark.”

John and Kathy Falzone relocated from the Rockford area to Morris Chapel, Tennessee in 2021.

For the last 15 years, the couple spent winters on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, northeast of Cancun.

“Every morning before the sun came up, he would ride in his golf cart to a long pier and he would fish while sitting in a chair gazing at the sunrise,” Bonnie Falzone-Capriola said.

Falzone will also be remembered for his signature  “How you doin’?” greeting when he encountered family members and friends, Falzone-Capriola said.

In addition to his wife, Kathy and daughter, Bonnie, Falzone is survived by his daughter, Brenda, his son, Benny, nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

A celebration of Falzone’s life will be held in Rockford this spring.

Ken DeCoster is a reporter at the Rockford Register Star. Contact him at 815-987-1391, kdecoster@rrstar.com or @DeCosterKen. 

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford native John Falzone known for role in women's bowling dies