By Scott Sieber
The name, Pfc. James E. Prevete, who lost his life in October 2004 due to a white-out in Habbinya, Iraq, was affixed to his home block on Fifth Avenue in Whitestone in a street-renaming ceremony presided over by City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) Friday.Hundreds turned out in support of the grieved family and fiancee of the fallen soldier, including state Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside), state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Whitestone), and hundreds of members of the veterans from the VFW Post 4787, Jewish War Veterans, Larry Muss Post 415 and the American Legion Post 131.”This is just a small token of the city's remembrance on his behalf,” Avella said. “Each day we will look up and remember his sacrifice.”James' mother, Jean, said the tragic news reached her family at a difficult time right before her husband died from cancer only 15 days later.Next week, she said, it will be eight months since her son died. Outside her home, Jean Prevete hugged friends and chatted with neighbors while well-wishers lined up to offer moral support.”This is what really helps,” she said. “Everybody around me.”Most of the friends and neighbors stayed for refreshments, turning the street renaming ceremony into a sort of block party.With the street sign bearing her son's name gleaming behind her, Jean Prevete said her son would have loved it.”He wanted a block party when he got home,” she said. “He told us that before he left.”His fiancee, Diana Sartori, wiped a tear from her eye as she remembered the soldier she was supposed to marry.”He definitely would have loved this,” she said, “because home was his favorite place to be.”Neighbors recalled Prevete as an excitable youth, who used to ride around the block on his bicycle.”He would ride all over the place,” said a neighbor Hattie Addler. “But he was not the sort of person who would cause a havoc. He was a very sweet boy.”Reach reporter Scott Sieber by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-0229-0300, Ext. 138.
