The country’s first foreign trade zone was established in Stapleton, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk at South Beach and George Cromwell Recreation Center in Tompkinsville were built.
Additionally, during Palma’s administration Drumgoole Boulevard was constructed, hundreds of miles of roads were rebuilt and more than $3 million in new drainage facilities were installed.
The couple had 11 children, Joseph Jr., David, Marie, Robert, George, Alice, John, Richard, James, Eileen and Raymond.
Palma built and lived in the home featured in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Oscar-winning movie The Godfather with his wife Marie and 11 children until it was sold for nearly $1.7 million to the Norton family in 1951.
The five-bedroom, seven bathroom, 6,248-square-foot English Tudor style mansion sits on a 2,400-square-foot open expanse at 110 Longfellow Avenue on Emerson Hill.