Farewell to Carmine "Skippy" Caracciolo, 79, a composing room and printing room mainstay at Playbill magazine for more than 60 years. He was attacked in his Little Italy apartment building May 7 and never recovered.

Skippy started as a messenger at Playbill when he was 19 years old -- on Dec. 8, 1938. He'd already had relatives working at the company, and Skippy would never work anywhere else in his career. Said Playbill Controller Lewis Cole, "He just loved Playbill. He always thought it was a very special company."

Co-worker Dominic Cusanelli, himself a 45-year veteran at Playbill, told PBOL, "He was a king of a man. He was a man that would do anything for you, anything you asked. And a perfect gentlemen. There's nothing I could say about this... It's a tough loss."

Cusanelli remembered, "Skippy didn't do that much as far as traveling, but he loved to get together with his old army buddies. He was in General Patton's 4th Armored Division and ran a tank there." Mr. Carraciolo was also wounded and decorated for his efforts during the Second World War.

He survived that, only to die five decades later from a mugging. According to Controller Cole, "Someone was hiding in the stairwell in the hallway of his apartment. They attacked him from behind and hit him over the head very hard. He was in a coma for a few days, then semi-comatose. On May 19 he had a massive heart attack." Skippy's wife died in 1984. They had one daughter, Margaret. The Viewing will be held this weekend at Guidetti Funeral Home on Spring Street in Manhattan. Skippy's Funeral will be observed Monday, 9:30 AM at the Church of the Most Precious Blood (at Baxter St. and Canal St).

Friends and co-workers aren't sure where he picked up the nickname "Skippy," but they did say he also nicknamed himself "The Fox," as in "What's the problem? Let `The Fox' handle this." Controller Cole added, "He was the Rabbi of the group, the liaison between the composing room and the press room. He'd get people to work together instead of against each other."