They were married in 1933 and lived in Detroit briefly before moving to New York. The couple had four children, Joanne Marie Roots, Judith Ann, John Paul and (Ernani) James. They settled in Los Angeles in 1939 or 1940, and Bernardi began his second career as a contractor, building custom homes. After their children were grown, Lucille Bernardi went to work in the county probation department as a records clerk. When older, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and Bernardi, by then a City Council member, would bring her to work with him from their home in Van Nuys to watch television in his office. She died in 1993. Ernani Bernardi remarried in November 2001 to Eve Troutman.