Mario Cuomo

American lawyer and politician, Secretary of State, Lt. Governor and inaugurated Governor of New York, January 1983. The son of Italian immigrants from Naples, Andrea and Immaculata Cuomo, Mario was their fourth and last child. His father owned a grocery store where young Mario helped out at night. His father died in 1981. Mario was studious, reading late into the night in the back room of the store perched on milk crates. He was also an avid baseball fan. He studied law at St. John's and was admitted to the New York bar. Cuomo impressed his classmates and teachers as a clever intellectual duelist. He tied for first in his graduating class and was chosen to serve as a legal assistant for a judge on the New York State Court of Appeals. His advocacy in neighborhood disputes impressed Mayor John Lindsay who enlisted his help with other large neighborhood disputes. He rose through the Party machine of the majority Democrats in the problem-plagued metropolis of New York with skill and gifted oratory. Cuomo became Lieutenant Governor under Hugh Carey in 1978. He ran successfully for Governor of New York in 1982 and attracted national attention with his soaring keynote address as Governor. On 12/31/1990, he took the oath for his third term. After concluding the term, Cuomo spent his time writing. The children's book, "The Blue Spruce" was released in November 1999, a beautiful story that relates the life lesson of "never give up." He married Matilda Raffa during his first year of law school. They had five children. Link to Wikipedia biography