Joseph Edwin Drago
The family of Joseph Edwin Drago announced his passing on Feb. 10 at the age of 72. Eddie, as he was known to family and friends, lived in Pleasantville for the past 25 years
He was the first-born son of Salvatore and Betty Jean (née Peterson) on Aug. 18, 1948, in Jersey City, N.J. Five years later the family moved to the Silver Beach area of Throggs Neck, the Bronx, where he was raised with his younger brother Salvatore.
As a child, he played the accordion, tutored by Vinny Roberts’ studio and was a member of the St. Frances de Chantal CYO Sea Cadet Corps.
Summer holidays were spent in Waynesville, Ohio at grandma Alma Petersons’ farm. At the county fair, he proudly took a blue ribbon for his floral arrangement.
After graduation from Mount Saint Michael Academy in the Bronx, he entered the University of Dayton graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1970.
He taught junior high school but left teaching to follow a business career. He bought and sold jewelry, coins and antiques in the tristate area for more than 30 years. He owned his business at the Crosby Avenue Jewelers in the Bronx. He was a fair and decent businessman who educated himself about his products.
Aside from work, Eddie enjoyed going to the movies and completing The New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.
Eddie met Ann Marie Hopkins, a registered nurse, at a CYO dance in Whitestone, Queens in September 1984. They were married the following year on Oct. 12, 1985. On Thanksgiving weekend in 1994 they moved to Pleasantville to start their family.
Three-year-old Patrick was adopted from Volsk, Saratov, Russia in 1997; 12-year-old John Evgeny and 11-year-old Marie Katerina were adopted in 1999. After the death of her brother, John, in 2008, Marie located her sister Natasha with the help of a video graphic reporter and friend named Ekaterina Ustinova in 2014.
When Eddie’s vision failed and health problems progressed, he retired from his business and tutored students part-time. He attended the Mount Pleasant Community Center for lunch, met new friends and attended social gatherings there with his wife.
He is predeceased by his son, John Evgeny, and his 16-year-old collie mix named Biscuit.
Eddie is survived by his brother, Salvatore and sister-in-law Mary; his children, Marie and Patrick; nieces Christine Folchi Zavadil and Jennifer Hopkins; and nephews Brian Thomas Folchi, Brian Patrick and Brendan James Hopkins. He is also survived by his wife, Ann Marie.
Due to COVID-19 and weather conditions, please do not send any flowers. The family received friends at Beecher Flooks Funeral Home in Pleasantville on Feb. 15. A Mass of Christian Burial was scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. at Holy Innocents R.C. Church in Pleasantville. Burial followed at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.
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