Obituary of Joseph Amedure

Joseph “Joe” Amedure, aged 84, died on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at his home in Land O’ Lakes, Florida.

Joe was born in the small town of Hillsville, Pennsylvania on July 20,1939, son of Giuseppe Amedure and Elisabetta Coluccio Amedure, both immigrants from Calabria, Italy. Giuseppe had four children with his first wife Grace, who died while pregnant with a fifth. Upon her death, and after the death of his youngest child, Giuseppe returned to Italy to find a new bride, and thus married the young Elisabetta and brought her to America. Giuseppe and Elisabetta raised his three surviving children, mourned the one that was lost, and had nine more together for a total of 13. Joseph (considered a Junior given his father’s name) was number 11. The Amedure clan lived simply on a small farm in a community composed largely of Italian immigrants. Joe later recalled believing “everyone was Italian and everyone spoke Italian” until the family moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1950, where Joe spent the next 36 years of his life.

He always described his youth as a series of misadventures, but everyone who knew him knew his heart was honest, kind, and loving, and he was always devoted to his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. Joe graduated from New Utrecht High school in 1957. While he initially thought to work with his brothers in construction, his mother, who knew her son well, opposed this for him and told him to look for an office job. Encouraged by his older sister Virginia, Joe began working at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Manhattan, New York. As he came of age during the time of the military draft, Joe served as a Private First Class in the US Army, working as a cook for most of his two years of service in Huntsville, Alabama. Upon completion of his service, he returned to Brooklyn and resumed work at MetLife, which considered his two years military service as part of his career. In his 20s, Joe became acquainted with the religious movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses and became a baptized member in 1962. He continued to work at MetLife even while devoting many hours each week to door-to-door service and study of the Bible with interested neighbors.

At the age of 25, he met a young woman at the Kingdom Hall. He later said, “I looked across the room, saw a beautiful face, and I liked what I saw. A lot.” On September 4, 1965, Joe married that beautiful girl, Noemi “Amy” DeJesus, who was only 19 at the time, but already a mature, confident young woman. The two shared the rest of their lives together, as active members of their congregation and devoted parents, raising four children together. As the family grew, Joe and Amy moved out of the apartment they had shared in Brooklyn and bought a family home in Jackson, New Jersey in 1986. There they spent the next five years, until MetLife relocated Joe’s department to Tampa, Florida in 1991. While he was reluctant to leave the Northeast and his mother and siblings, he eventually recognized this as a good opportunity and made the trip to Tampa, purchasing a home there and preparing to move his wife and three younger children. In December 1991, Joe and Amy moved into their home in Lutz, Florida, where they raised their children. Joe continued to work at MetLife as an underwriter until his retirement in 2004. He and his wife shared great joy at the weddings of their children, which brought them several “step" grandchildren, and the birth of their first grandchild. In January 2013, Amy died, following a long illness. Joe had served many years as her primary caretaker, and he grieved her loss the rest of his life. But Joe was a man of great faith, and it was his faith, his family, and his many friends that allowed him to find deep joy even in the midst of the sorrow of losing the woman he loved. He remained an attentive father and a devoted grandfather to his grandsons, who all loved him dearly. He also remained an active member of the Land O’ Lakes congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, conducting Bible studies and engaging in the ministry even through increasing physical challenges.

Joe’s health declined in his later years, and after a long hospital stay in October-November 2023, he returned to his daughter’s home to spend his final days. He died peacefully on the afternoon of December 2, 2023, at the age of 84, surrounded by his four children, loved by all he knew, safe in God’s memory.

He is survived by three siblings - Dorothy Saqqal, Betty Ann Clemente, and David Amedure; his four children - Peter Amedure, Deborah Amedure-Sierra, Bethany Amedure-Clark, and Daniel Amedure; and six grandchildren - Zackary Clark, Michael Sierra Jr, Nicholas Sierra, Dominick Clark, Benjamin Clark, and Matthew Sierra.

Joseph Amedure will be interred next to his beloved wife Noemi at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida in a private family ceremony. Public services are as follows:

Visitation & Viewing: Thursday, December 7th. 5:00 - 7:00 PM

Loyless Funeral Home

5310 Land O’ Lakes Blvd, Land O’Lakes, Florida 34639

Funeral Services: Saturday, December 9, 4:00 PM

Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses

6225 Grady Ave., Tampa, Florida 33614