Dave Kleylein
Today I learned that one of my childhood friends had recently passed away. Bart Sanfilippo was my first close friend and went back to my days of growing up in North Miami. We first met in fifth grade at William Jennings Bryan Elementary in Henry Ramsauer’s class and were both in Mr. Leo Price’s sixth grade class the following year. We had some classes together at North Miami Junior High, most remembered was a Latin class where we got into trouble together off on during the school year. It was Bart who talked me into getting a paper route with The Miami Daily News in 1957 and that was my first adventure with a real job. When my family moved from North Miami to Carol City Bart and I lost contact for a time but then got back together for a double date in North Miami the mid 60s. When I moved from North Miami to Buffalo we were out of touch for many years and then came the Internet. While visiting my brother Rich in Pennsylvania one October day in 2001 we talked about our old friends from North Miami and Bart’s name came up. I mentioned that I hadn’t heard from him in years and my brother put Bart’s name in Google and came up with a street address for him. I mailed Bart a letter with my email address and he came back to me and we corresponded via email over the following months. In March of 2002 my wife Donna and I were in the Miami area and we were able to meet up with Bart and his wife Joan in Fort Lauderdale. We had a great time catch up on things and it was like a mini-reunion for us. Then again we got out of touch and today I found out that he had passed away March 31st of this year. I’m sad at learning of his death but I’m glad we were able to get together for a short time before he passed. I often think about the times my brother and I would go to Bart’s house after school or on the weekends and play kick the can with him and his brother Bruce. I have many good memories of growing up and sharing times with Bart and that makes me very happy. Rest in Peace Bart, your friend Dave Kleylein.