Joseph Kozloff

My Uncle Joe, I was too young to remember him when he died. I was three years old. I do have clear snippets of when he died. I remember the house and he was laid in the coffin at the house. I remember the incense smells and Father Baranov. He died too young from Pneumonia.

I've heard about my Uncle Joe from my dad, mom, aunts and uncles who loved him dearly. He was a step-brother to my dad, the aunts, and according to everyone he was the closest to Aunt Jackie. We, as kids called her Aunty Queenie.

Uncle Joe was an accomplished musician. He played the piano, guitar, saxophone, and everything he could get his hands on. He picked up an instrument and played it, "playing by ear." My brother Patrick and I were the same way with the guitar only. Dad bought a piano for the house and Uncle Joe would come and play it.

One time he was playing baseball and was hit in the head and taken to the hospital. Knocked him out cold.

I did a lot of research of the Mt. Edgecumbe records in the Sitka Sentinel and found out he had a very good singing voice and was in the school choir, traveling all over southeast Alaska with the choir.

Iliodor Henry Kozloff