John Tramelli, Salesman, Minor-Leage Pitcher, Dies

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch - October 11, 2009

John J. Tramelli, co-founder and ex-president
of Phelan-Tramelli Sales Agency Inc., died
Friday (Oct. 9, 2009) at his home in Brentwood
of heart failure. He was 83.

Mr. Tramelli was born in St. Louis and attended St. Louis University High school. He was signed by the New York Giants baseball team while in high school and pitched in their minor-league system, rising as high as Class AAA before being called to the Army in World War II. He served in Europe and spent nine months in the hospital recovering from exposure. Penicillin, then a new drug, saved him from having a leg amputated.

He spent five more years in professional baseball after the war and also earned a marketing degree from Washington University.

In 1958, Mr. Tramelli and his lifelong friend, Jim
Phelan, started Phelan-Tramelli, which has
represented steel producers in the Midwest for
51 years. The business is still family-owned.

Visitation will be today at Lupton Chapel, 7233
Delmar Boulevard in University City, from 4 to 8 p.m.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Immacolata Church, 8900 Clayton Road, Tuesday at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery.

Among the survivors are four sons, John V. Tramelli, Michael Tramelli, Daniel Tramelli and James Tramelli, all of St. Louis; five daughters, Ann Tramelli, Mary Guyol, Joan Guyol and Susan Bishoff of St. Louis and Lisa Tramelli of Lesterville, Mo.; 24 grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. His wife of 55 years, Rita Tramelli, died in 2006.