James "Jimmy" Phillip Paci

James Phillip Paci, 98, died peacefully on April 11, 2023.

Those lucky enough to know him lovingly referred to him as “Jimmy” or “Red”.

Born September 3, 1924, to the late Joseph and Luigia Paci (nee Guccione). He was raised in New York City.

Jimmy’s life was one well-lived. As a young boy, growing up in New York City, he worked at his father’s grocery store, located on First Ave and 40th Street. It was there that he learned the art of butchery – which became his lifelong work.

In 1939, a young lady with long dark hair, beautiful eyes and a nice smile happened upon the grocery store. It was love at first sight - for Red. Marie did not even look at him. After much persistence and skillfully dodging her father, Red scored a (supervised) date with Marie. He took her to an ice cream parlor.

One Sunday afternoon in 1941, Red took Marie to the movies. An hour in, the movie was stopped, and it was announced that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Shortly after his 18th birthday, Red enlisted in the Navy and completed his boot training in Samson, NY.

After twelve long weeks of learning the Navy way, he shipped out of NY for England. He was assigned to the USS LST-282, one of few ships that could go on the beach, unload her cargo and back out. On June 6, 1944, Jimmy, a young gunners-mate, headed to the shore of Normandy. His ship made several trips to the shore that day. After the first few trips, his ship returned to collect wounded soldiers. The next three trips collected German prisoners of war from Omaha and Utah Beach.

After the Normandy landings, Jimmy set sail for the assault on Okinawa, Japan where he stayed three months. 320 “small boat” men went to war; Jimmy was one of the 65 came back.

Jimmy took great pride in his service to his country in the United States Navy during World War II.

After his honorable discharge in 1946, Jimmy married his sweetheart, Marie, and the Paci’s raised their daughter in the Bronx Borough of New York City, where he was the owner and operator of his own Butcher Shop and served his community for over 40 years. In his retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Paci moved to Toms River where they were active in their Senior Community and were parishioners of St. Luke Roman Catholic Church. He enjoyed washing and polishing his Cadillac, playing poker, gardening, a good scotch, cooking, and time with his family, especially his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

He was proud of his Italian heritage. If you did a favor for Jimmy, you were repaid with a package of homemade sausage. He was an overprotective father. He was a devoted father-in-law. He was a doting grandfather. He was a silly great-grandfather. He loved to help people, did his job the very best he knew how, stood by his word, and believed in being honest with everyone. Yet, if you crossed his family, he had two questions, “How fast can you run? Where can you hide?”

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife Marie Paci in 2017.

Surviving are his loving daughter Joanne Zimmerman and husband Raymond, cherished granddaughters Taryn Talty and husband Sean and Brina Mascaro and husband Michael, his adored great-grandchildren Kyle, Leni, Drew, Quin, Scarlett, and Logan, his dear sister Ann Cicero and husband Vincent, as well as his extended family.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 AM on Friday, April 21, 2023, at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Roman Catholic Church, 500 Route 22, Bridgewater.

Entombment with military honors will follow at St. Bernard Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made in his memory to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or Donate Online .