Jody Booher

It is with great sadness that we announce that Jody Paul Booher, 66, passed away on January 8, 2026, after a long battle with an illness.

Jody was born on February 24, 1959 in Mineola, Long Island, NY. He was one of five siblings and attended Mineola High School. From a young age, Jody loved rock music, especially the Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and Pearl Jam. One of his most memorable life stories that he frequently told was that he was in attendance at the legendary Pink Floyd concert on Long Island in February 1980, during “The Wall Tour,” where they built a massive wall onstage during the concert. His daughters, Katie and Lilly, inherited his love of music, and one of their fondest shared memories of him was all of the times they spent listening to his favorite CDs in the car together while driving to get Starbucks.

For a large part of his adult life on Long Island, he was the proud co-owner of the Boar’s Head deli in Deer Park, NY, which he loved and took great pride in running. The deli also held a special place in his heart as the location where he met Debra, the mother of his future children, and, upon meeting her, gifted her a car wash and a carton of cigarettes.

After working at the deli for more than 20 years, Jody and his family moved to Lancaster, PA in 2004, where they have resided ever since. Even after his family settled in Pennsylvania, Jody never strayed from his New York roots when it came to sports, and made sure everyone around him knew it by displaying his favorite team flags outside of his house year-round. He was a huge fan of the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, and also enjoyed watching the Oklahoma Sooners football team with his son, James.

Jody had a wide variety of interests and hobbies, including reading, especially when it involved history or politics. He was an enthusiastic coin collector, and an avid fan of puzzles, particularly crosswords and sudoku. He was very passionate about antiques, and loved when his children would send him pictures of old newspapers. He also enjoyed finding vintage collectibles, as well as old radios and electronics.

Jody was a big connoisseur of Italian food, especially Sicilian pizza from Zino’s on Long Island, and he would never say no to an eggplant Parmesan sandwich. He also had a memorable fondness for chocolate, spanning from his love of triple layer chocolate cake, to the chocolate lab named Lady that the family adopted when his daughter Katie was a baby.

Some of his most cherished family traditions included going to the Knight & Day Diner for Father’s Day, and the Christmas breakfast that his family would have every year on Christmas morning.

The loved ones that Jody leaves behind include the mother of his children, Debra Grammatico, his three children, Katie, James, and Lilly, and his cat, Bandit. He was preceded in death by his parents, Vernon and Mildred Booher, of Mineola, NY. His family was of the utmost importance to him, and he will be deeply missed.

Jody will be remembered fondly and often, but especially when a Beatles song starts playing on the radio, while eating a big slice of chocolate cake or cracking a dad joke, or Christmas morning eating eggs, bagels, hash browns, and sausages, and any and all of the moments in between.