Juan F. Yzaguirre

On May 18, 2021 Juan “John” Francisco Yzaguirre peacefully passed away at home in Los Angeles, California. He was 89 years old. John was Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1931, the oldest of his birth father’s (Jose Enrique Yzaguirre) six children. Along with his younger brother Henry, John was brought to the United States by his parents, Armando and Maria Teresa Romero, in 1940. Their new lives started in Tampa, Florida. Eventually, the family would move to New York City, where, in 1950, John would meet the woman who would become his wife two years later, Mercedes. In the middle of their courtship, John started a two-year honorable tour of duty during the Korean War. Ten months after his tour ended, John and his new bride would welcome a little girl that would be the first of the couple’s seven children together.

After several years of working with the United States Postal Service, John spent the next thirty years working as a Pasteurizer in the Dairy industry, most of those years with Breyer’s Ice Cream, in Long Island City, New York. When John was not working overtime on the graveyard shift, he enjoyed playing cards, dominoes, watching baseball, especially his Brooklyn Dodgers, listening to his Lena Horne albums, and Old Grand-dad Bourbon (the 100-proof, naturally). John was a stealthily good cook, quite the dancer, and an accomplished movie star, who you may have recognized in such roles as “Fan” in the Eddie Murphy hit, “Raw.”

In 2017, much like his beloved Dodgers sixty years prior, John moved to Los Angeles, CA, with his youngest son, to live out his final “days.” In 2018, 78 years after he left Cuba, John returned to his hometown for one last visit to finally meet his younger half-siblings and their extended families in a reunion for the ages.

John was predeceased by his wife of 55 years, Mercedes, for whom he lovingly cared for at home during her own illness, until her passing in 2008. John is survived by his brother, Henry Yzaguirre (Ada), and his newly acquainted four half-siblings, Ricardo Enrique Yzaguirre, Luz Divina Yzaguirre, Lourdes Yzaguirre, and Maria Lucia Yzaguirre. Blessed to have never buried a child, John is also survived by all seven of his children: Yolanda Polsky, John Yzaguirre, Jr. (Sara), Francisco J. Yzaguirre (Lenora), Rebecca Gerlach (Russell), Armando Yzaguirre (Christina), Virginia Fragola (Vito), and Charles R. Yzaguirre (Timothy McCormick). In addition, John was the proud grandfather of six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, with a third on the way.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend visiting hours at the Boulevard Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 1151 River Road, New Milford on Thursday, May 27, 2021, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The following day a Funeral Mass will be celebrated in his memory in the Church of the Annunciation, 50 West Midland Avenue, Paramus, NJ at 10:00 AM. Following the Funeral Mass, John will be buried in George Washington Memorial Park, Paramus.

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