Centenarian: Joseph Leone

As a child, Joseph Leone went into the alley behind his home on Racine Avenue in Chicago, found some smashed cans, and nailed them onto the soles of his shoes to create tap shoes. He wanted to teach himself to dance. When the cans lost their tap luster, he returned to the alley and repeated the process.

“My mother would get mad, telling me I was wrecking all my shoes,” he says, laughing at the memory.

But Joseph did learn to dance, and he never looked back. He had a flair for show business and spent his childhood dancing in the Aragon Ballroom, Trianon Ballroom, and other venues. His talent eventually led him to San Francisco, where, in his 20s, he says he worked as an extra, dancing in movies. 

Joseph also learned to sing — mostly in Italian, although he doesn’t understand a lick of it, despite growing up in an Italian neighborhood.

Eventually, Joseph gave up on the movie scene; it was too difficult to make it, and he joined the Army for World War II, where he trained as an aircraft gunner.

After the war, Joseph left the military and opened two barbershops. He calls himself the best barber anyone could have. “I never screwed up on anything because I was pretty fussy about my own hair,” he says.

Joseph had a full life after the military. He married three times and has a son and two daughters. He also worked as a gold leaf printer for a Chicago company that made Christmas cards and drove a Chicago Transit Authority bus, which he says he did as a restful activity. He never thought he would live to see 103 but credits his longevity to always finding happiness in any situation.

Top photo by Jim Vondruska

Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 print issue.