Queens Public Library Connection Jeanne Elmezzi (1910–2005) was a philanthropist from Long Island City. Jeanne was married to Thomas Elmezzi (1914–2005), a chemical engineer who played a significant role in the development of the Pepsi Company. In 1931, alongside his mentor, John Ritchie, Thomas revised and developed a new formula for the soft drink and went on to work as the Worldwide Head of Production for the company, opening bottling plants around the world. In 1996, the Elmezzi’s formed the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation, dedicated to supporting programs that directly aids individuals who face physical, medical, economic, or educational challenges. Until their deaths in 2005, both Jeanne and Thomas remained active in the work of their foundation. Born Jeanne Mastronardi in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Italian immigrant parents and the youngest of four children. When she was 17 months old, her father became ill, and Jeanne was sent to live with her mother’s sister, Lucia Carra, at 1830 25th Road in Astoria, where Jeanne was raised. In 1913, Jeanne’s father died of osteo-articular tuberculosis. In 1928, the Elmezzi family - Thomas’s parents also having immigrated from Italy - moved across the street, and Jeanne and Thomas grew up as neighbors. They both attended City College in 1938 and were married a year later. After graduating from City College, Jeanne worked for a period as a substitute teacher. Thomas received his degree in chemistry in 1939 from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. The couple settled in Astoria at 27-10 Newtown Avenue. In 1953, they moved to a five-room apartment in Great Neck, New York, where they lived for more than fifty years. During the early years of their marriage, Jeanne traveled with Thomas around the world as he set up bottling plants for Pepsi. Thomas retired from the company in 1968 but stayed active in other business ventures. Jeanne was an avid reader, a passion that helped inspire the Foundation’s board members to support the Queens Public Library. In 2008, the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation pledged a $6 million gift to the library to establish the Jeanne Elmezzi Long Island City Adult Learning Center at the Long Island City branch, located at 37-44 21st Street, and a dedication ceremony for the new Center was held on June 21, 2008. In 2025, the Center celebrated a reopening following a renovation, again supported by the Foundation, that included new flooring, new furniture, and 20 new public computers.

Colonel Jacob Blackwell (1717-1780) was a businessman, landowner, and a colonel in his local militia of Newtown, now Astoria. He was a veteran of both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. When the British advanced through Queens from the south and the east in September 1776, he retreated to New Jersey, later returning to find his property and fortune seized by the crown. He died on October 23, 1780, at the age of 63, three years before the Treaty of Paris established the United States as an independent nation. Blackwell was born in Newtown on November 20, 1717, to Jacob and Mary (Hallett) Blackwell. With his first wife, Frances Sackett, he had three children. After Frances died in 1754, the following year he married Lydia Hallett, and their union yielded four children. Blackwell’s large inherited farmland estate in Newtown included Blackwell’s Island, now Randall’s Island. Blackwell served initially as a captain in the Newtown militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1776, Blackwell sided with the patriots and fled to New Jersey when the British advanced through present-day Astoria. Soldiers marked the door of his home with an arrow to signify that it was property of the crown. Though he eventually returned to Newtown, Blackwell never recovered from the financial losses, and he died on October 23, 1780. He was buried at the time in the family cemetery, which stood across from his estate at the foot of what is now 37th Avenue, just west of Vernon Boulevard. The family home was demolished in 1901, but the original door was retrieved. After passing through several hands, the door is now part of the collection of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. Named in his honor, P.S. 111 Jacob Blackwell was built in 1950. It opened the same year and is located at 37-15 13th Street in Long Island City, half a mile from the former location of the Blackwell family estate and burial ground.