Amelia Franzia Gallo; Matriarch of World’s Largest Winery

Amelia Franzia Gallo, 83, wife and aide of winemaker Ernest Gallo and matriarch of the world’s largest winery. It was the second death in the Gallo family this year. Her brother-in-law, Julio Gallo, died in May when his vehicle plunged off a road near Tracy, Calif. Born in Stockton to another winemaking family, the Franzia Brothers in nearby Ripon, Amelia Franzia married Ernest Gallo in 1931. She began working as stenographer, secretary and janitor in the fledgling business almost immediately after Ernest and Julio Gallo started the E. & J. Gallo Winery in 1933 in Modesto at the end of Prohibition. In Modesto on Wednesday of an unspecified illness.