Islip man hears fallen father’s singing voice on newly discovered WWII-era records

Nicholas Faraone, an Islip resident, has spent a lifetime missing a father he never met, but recently discovered vinyl records which captured his father's singing voice 81 years ago.

News 12 Staff

Feb 26, 2022, 10:25 PM

Updated 961 days ago

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Nicholas Faraone, an Islip resident, has spent a lifetime missing a father he never met, but recently discovered vinyl records which captured his father's singing voice 81 years ago.
"They were in a box that my mother had put away with all the pictures…the bottom of the box were two or three records," said Faraone.
For decades, Faraone, 77, filled the void in his life by collecting medals and photos of his father. Sgt. Nicholas Faraone, Sr. was killed in action over the Pacific during World War II on Nov. 8, 1944.
His wife, Josephine, was pregnant with their only child, Nicholas, Jr., when she received the tragic news.
During the early 1940s, his father worked as a singing usher at the New York Academy of Music in Manhattan. He was set to sing a duet with Tony Bennett under the stage name Don Rogers.
"To hear the voice, it kind of resonated in my soul. It reached some place deep down and something that was always missing came to fruition," shared Faraone.
He put his musical career on hold after the attack on Pearl Harbor to enlist in the Army Air Corp. He was only 21 years old when he died for his country.
But Faraone's hero father lives on in his music.
"I can pass it on to my children and to my grandchildren and long after I'm gone the voice will still be there," said Faraone.