Mario Lanza married his lover Betty Lanza in 1945 and had four children with her. It was almost love at first sight when he met her through her brother.
On April 13, 1945, a short time after Mario received his Army discharge, the couple was married in a civil ceremony. They were remarried on July 15, 1945, in a Catholic church. They were blessed to have Colleen, Ellisa, Damon, and Marc as their four children.
Betty returned to Los Angeles with the kids after Mario’s death. She moved in with him about five months after Mario’s accidental drug overdose death.
Ellisa’s children were raised by their grandparents after their parents’ untimely deaths. Her siblings, however, also met the same end as her parents. Colleen, one of their four children, later became a screenwriter and died in a car accident in 1997. Ellisa is the only survivor of Mario’s two sons, Marc and Damon, who passed away from heart attacks in 1991 and 2008, respectively.