I was born in a flat in Harlem's Little Italy on 115th Street in Manhattan where I was delivered by a midwife, as were all of my siblings. My arrival was greeted with jubilation and prayers of thanks to Our Lady of Mount Carmel whose church was nearby where my parents, immigrants from southern Italy, were communicants as were most of our neighbors. I was the third child born to Giuseppe and Filomena Lepore. The first born, also a son, died an infant, of something called “summer complaint,” a diarrheal disease. In the tradition of Italian families, the first son had been named Michele for his paternal grandfather. The baby was buried by his grieving parents in a little plot in a cemetery in Brooklyn. The second child was a girl, Carmela. With my arrival my parents were faced with a dilemma. Should they name me Michael (Michele) and risk tempting fate (La Maluria) to strike me down as it had my little brother?

Religious belief overcame superstition with my arrival on St. Michael's Day, Sunday, May 8, 1910, and I was promptly named Michael in honor of my paternal grandfather. As luck would have it, I became ill during the summer of 1910 with a diarrheal disease similar to my deceased brother's and appeared headed for the same cemetery. My father, being a man of action, decided to send his wife and two children to Italy to live with the Lepore grandparents in Genzano, La Basilicata, Provincia di Potenza. There I regained my health and remained until I was three years old and thriving, at which time my father called us back to America. In retrospect, it is likely that I had lactase deficiency with milk intolerance. My mother was unable to breast-feed me and I had been placed on cow's milk formula resulting in severe diarrhea. In Italy I was passed around to ample-bosomed relatives and peasant women nursing their own children but willing and able to donate their surplus to my upbringing. Years later, I was still greeted by some of the same volunteer wet-nurses with a garlicky kiss on the cheek, a hug and “Benedette Sono Le Stizzi di Latto Che Io Dato” (Blessed are the drops of milk I gave you).