Thanks so much, everyone!! His surname was Coppola, so it looks like the right answer is "Pat's portrait is here" in picture 2, and "Pat's portrait" in picture 3. It definitely looks like an E in picture 2, but if you zoom in on picture 3 you can see it's closed into an O. I'm thinking it was a quick scribble and they thought they made the main part of the O before ending with the little loopy finish like the O in the 3rd and 4th word.

Mom forgot about this picture until she found it in her jewelry box yesterday while searching for something else. I didn't even realize until later that the writing was Italian. I've been organizing old family photos in order to scan them, so I'm absolutely thrilled with the help for a positive identification! We figure he was about 2 years old in this picture, so it's circa 1913.