Eve (Wasilko) Kozak fell asleep in the Lord on November 12, 2015, after complications from an automobile accident while in Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Harry and Katherine Wasilko, born on December 7, 1924 in her parents’ house in the coal mining town of Dixonville, Pennsylvania. She spent the first 15 years of her life there, and fondly remembered a childhood that included lots of friends, walking to school, feeding the chickens and tending the cows in the pasture.

At age 15, Eve went to New York City to work as a nanny. Eve then moved to Cleveland, Ohio to live with a sister and began working at various jobs, first as a nanny, then as a waitress at Mills Restaurant where she met her husband Harold, a Lieutenant in the United States Army. After their marriage she worked as a riveter on B-24 Bombers, then in a woolen mill. The first of her 2 children were born in Cleveland.


In 1949, the family moved to Utica, New York and expanded to 6 children and many friends. While her children were young, Eve worked at a variety of part time jobs. One of her favorite was as an interviewer for the University of Chicago where she had the unique experience of interviewing some of the last surviving Spanish-American war veterans. When her children started college, she returned to the full time workforce at General Electric’s Engineering Department where she built semiconductors for the aerospace program. In Utica, Eve, Harold and family were active members of the Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In 1980, Eve and Harold retired to Warren, Pennsylvania to be near their daughter Joyce and her family. There Eve became an active member of the North Warren Volunteer Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary, the Warren County Home Extension and the Senior Citizen Center. Following the death of her husband, she again moved to St. Clairsville, Ohio where her daughter and family had relocated. In St. Clairsville Eve was an active member of Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Barton, Ohio where she was a member of the Women’s Sodality, an avid Perohi maker, and a nut roll baker.

Eve had a passion for life and an artistic talent that she expressed through painting, flower arranging, ceramics and home remodeling. She especially loved working with wood. She loved the outdoors, taking care of her garden and flowers. She loved to cook and always had a meal, cake or cookies awaiting anyone who visited. Her door was always open to her friends, relatives and her children’s many friends. Eve was dedicated to her family and displayed this best by the care she provided for two of her children with special needs.

Eve and her siblings maintained their family home in Dixonville. She was a lifelong member of Dixonville’s 100 year old Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church and would return there each year to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, Easter and other church functions. Orthodox Christmas Eve was celebrated with the traditional fasting dinner which included Kapusta soup, flat bread, bulgur wheat, mushrooms, peas, horseradish and Perohi.

For Easter she prepared the Easter Basket for its blessing at church. The basket included her home baked Pascha bread, homemade dried and yellow cheese, hard boiled eggs, horseradish, kielbasa and ham. Christmas and Easter dinners at Dixonville were shared with her extended family of children, nieces and nephews.

Eve loved to dance and her favorite was the polka. She loved life and her motto was “Never miss a party”.

She spent her last days doing just that on a mini vacation that included a great nephew’s wedding, tea on the Queen Mary and a visit with her sister Helen in Wisconsin.

Eve was preceded in death by her husband, 7 of her siblings, one niece and many friends. She leaves behind her children Brian, Jim and wife Grace, Joyce and husband Fred Baker, Robert, Rick and wife Elaine, Ken and wife Jeanine; grandchildren, Steve Baker, Hannah Kozak, Ella Curtiss, Alexandra, Nick and Nathaniel Kozak; her sister Helen Chukayne, her sister-in-law, Rita Wasilko, many, many nieces, nephews, their children and many friends.

She will be missed by all of who knew her.

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