Justin Vitrano, a wholesale produce dealer known as the “Lettuce King,” died of complications from a fall July 14 at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 95 and lived in Timonium.
Born in Los Angeles and raised in Little Italy and Wiltondale, he was the son of Anthony Vitrano, a produce dealer, and Frances. A 1945 graduate of Towson High School, he earned a degree at the Johns Hopkins University.
He was a center fielder and shortstop on the Hopkins baseball team and also played for the Baltimore Allstars, a semi-pro team.
A 2013 Sun story said that Mr. Vitrano spent his childhood, “worshipping Joe DiMaggio and playing the game with balls he and his pals would fish out of the Jones Falls [near his Little Italy home] after a good rain.
“As a young man, Vitrano and a couple of buddies tried out for a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team on a lark one year — and made it. But the $100 a month the club offered seemed skimpy to Vitrano, who at the time was making $30 a week working for his family’s produce business,” the story said.
Justin Vitrano began attending Orioles opening day games in 1954 after Major League Baseball returned to Baltimore. (Handout)
He met his future wife, Frances Smith, at his sister’s wedding in 1953. They married Feb. 25, 1954, and honeymooned in Florida, where he caught spring training.
“Justin was outgoing and greeted people with a big smile,” said his wife. “He had a memory where he could recall people from years ago.”
Mr. Vitrano began his family on Loch Hill Road and moved to Valley Court Road, where he resided for 60 years.
He started working as a boy with his father, known as “Mr. Celery,” who founded a produce business with two cases of celery.
“He never filled out a job application or wrote a resume and retired after his 90th birthday,” said his daughter, Cathy Vitrano Kellermann.
His family’s Tony Vitrano Company distributed West Coast and Florida produce throughout Baltimore.
“My grandfather recognized his eldest son’s knack for sales and his intense work ethic,” his daughter, Cathy, said. “Justin became his right-hand man, accompanying him at meetings and to out-of-state conventions before he graduated from high school.”
His business became one of the largest on the East Coast.
He developed clients at the old supermarket chains — Mars, Food Fair and Pantry Pride, and the A&P. He also supplied produce to Baltimore’s hotels such as the old Southern, Lord Baltimore and Belvedere.
In a 1990 Sun article, Mr. Vitrano said of the produce business, “It’s like the stock market only everything’s perishable.” The article referred him to as the “Lettuce King,” although he sold also broccoli, carrots, onions, celery and fruit.
Mr. Vitrano’s business was once located at the old wholesale produce terminal off North Avenue. He was part of the committee that organized the consolidation of the Baltimore produce industry from city locations to the Maryland Food Center in Jessup.
Mr. Vitrano, who coached Little League Baseball for Lutherville Timonium Recreation Council, began attending Orioles opening day games in 1954 after Major League Baseball returned to Baltimore.
His last game was in 2019, due to COVID risks.
“As he takes in the game, he’s anything but animated. He’s a scientist, really, watching and studying, thinking and analyzing,” said the Sun’s 2013 story.
“He loves the game for what it was and for what it is. He misses the nickel hot dogs and the pre-JumboTron days, when he’d bring a transistor radio to games to complement what he saw with the play-by-play. But he also relishes some modern advances — the speed guns that measure a pitch and elaborate preseason scouting reports.”
A memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. July 20 at the Mercy Ridge Retirement Community on Pot Spring Road.
Survivors include his wife of 70 years, Frances Smith Vitrano; six sons: Tony Vitrano, of Timonium, Joe Vitrano, of White Hall, Tom Vitrano, of Boise, Idaho, Frank Vitrano, of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Jim Vitrano, of Baltimore; a daughter, Cathy Vitrano Kellermann, of Lutherville; a brother, Norman Vitrano, of Stevensville; nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. A son, Stephen Vitrano, died in 1992.
Originally Published: July 20, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.