Residents, family and friends gathered Thursday to celebrate a new commemorative street sign on the corner of Mission Street and Excelsior Avenue for Central Drug Store’s Elsie Tonelli.
Tonelli, who died in January 2023, started her journey at the 116-year-old pharmacy as a 16-year-old soda clerk. She fell in love with one of the young pharmacists, Dino Tonelli, and together they bought Central Drug Store from George De Vencenzi in 1965. On Dino’s passing in 1991, their son, Jerry, took over operations with Elsie where they remained ever since.
“She was the backbone of the store,” Jerry said. “She was a special person and she always remembered people. She was very sharp and she remembered people’s names. She remembered what they liked. You don’t go into a store nowadays where they say ‘Oh I remember you like this’ — but she did that.”
The family quickly became community pillars who prided themselves on creating a friendly, safe and welcoming establishment, applying their dedication to building personal relationships with customers. For instance, Dino helped create the neighborhood’s business league.
Central Drug became a San Francisco Legacy Business Directory in 2021, and the board of supervisors approved District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí’s proposal for the commemorative street sign in October 2023.
Elsie was not only a mother to seven with 18 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, but she also had a family of customers to whom she offered advice and even drove some customers to and from their doctor’s appointments.
She raised three kids in their home off of Theresa Street before moving to Daly City. At one point, she ran for Daly City Council.
“The Tonelli’s helped to build this neighborhood,” Safaí said. “When you think about the people in the city that have had streets named after them, Jack Kerouac, Tony Bennett, now Elsie Tonelli, it’s much, much deserved. Elsie and Dino pioneered thinking about how to put people to work, giving them opportunities, giving them a career and they were a family and they still are a family that invests in the neighborhood.”
Elsie’s great-grandchildren Alex Rhein, Gemma Marcaletti and Sophia Peterson said they felt honored to be a part of the Tonelli legacy especially since Elsie was extremely hard-working and would always put others first.
“She’s just a true icon from a generation that was so special and she worked there until her ‘90s, did the books,” grandchild Kimberly Cody said. “The whole place is a throwback, a time machine when you walk in there but to have her name eternalized here, I wish she was here.”
Correction: Elsie Tonelli did not attend St. Ignatius.
