Dolly Smith, at age 84, had the look of a child on Christmas morning as she waited outside her Jeannette home for Mayor Curtis Antoniak and his wife, Karen, to arrive.

“What do you have there?” Smith coyly asked as the Antoniaks climbed out of their truck carrying a framed collage.

Once inside the kitchen, Smith caught a glimpse of a photograph of her beloved cousin, former city police Officer Allen “Jack” Capozzi, in the frame along with a pencil etching of his name off the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Oh, Jackie,” Smith said.

A candlelight vigil planned May 13 at the memorial to dedicate new names, including that of Capozzi, was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last weekend, the Antoniaks went to Virginia to attend a grandson’s first communion and to celebrate their daughter Julie’s birthday. They also visited the memorial.

“I told Dolly last winter I planned to go to the dedication, and it literally kept me up at night after (the dedication) was canceled,” Curtis Antoniak said. “I’m really honored to be able to bring this back to her … and I can now sleep at night.

“When I ran into Dolly at the Shop ’n Save and told her I planned to go in May and I’d get her a pencil etching, she started crying right there.”

In October 1978, Capozzi and fellow Officer Carl Shifko went to the Piedmont Bar to break up an argument between two men. The officers separated them when something went wrong. Capozzi collapsed.

The 35-year-old was rushed to Jeannette District Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He died from a heart issue, according to coroner records.

Police officers from across the country came to Jeannette for Capozzi’s funeral service, Smith said. He is buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Lincoln Heights.

As he died in the line of duty, his named was placed on the national memorial this spring.

Rocky Geppert of Millvale, a volunteer researcher with the Officer Down Memorial Page, said he submitted Capozzi’s name for consideration on the memorial a few years ago but was asked to provide additional documentation. He recently passed along more records.

Capozzi joins another Jeannette police officer on the memorial — Joseph Bossert, 44, who died Jan. 29, 1921, after being shot while walking his beat in West Jeannette. Geppert and former Jeannette Officer Justin Scalzo, now with the Greensburg department, researched Bossert’s death.

Antoniak said Shifko, who retired in 2005 as police chief, referred to Capozzi as a “giant teddy bear.”

Smith said Capozzi’s size often scared away trouble.

“Nobody messed with Jackie. But he was always helping everybody,” Smith said.

She recalled that she was raised in Jeannette with Capozzi.

His father died serving in Germany in the 1940s and his mother, Carmella Capozzi, died when he was 11, Smith said. Capozzi lived with his aunt, Didi Trongo.

“My mom and dad both worked, so I would go over to my Aunt Didi’s and Uncle Joe’s during the week on Wylie Avenue. Jackie was always a good kid, and I was like his big sister,” Smith recalled.

Karen Antoniak said she grew up a few doors away from the Trongos and recalled Capozzi as a “gentle giant.”

“He loved being a policeman. He loved working on cars … his, mine and for other family members,” Smith added.

Smith recalled that in the 1960s, Capozzi owned a burgundy Pontiac GTO that he rarely took out of the garage.

“It would only come out if it was sunny and then he’d drive it around the block, polish it and put it back in the garage. That’s how he was with that car,” Smith said, laughing.

Capozzi had been working as a part-time officer in Jeannette for six years at the time of his death, according to newspaper accounts. Smith said he also worked at the Allegheny County Airport near West Mifflin. She has a photograph hanging in her home of him filling up an airplane with fuel.

“I can’t believe (the Antoniaks) did this for me. It looks like it was made to go right there,” she said as she hung the collage on a wall in her dining room.

“Jackie would have been so humble about getting all this attention. He’d say, ‘Oh, you didn’t have to go to all this trouble,’” Smith said, turning back to admire the collage that also includes photographs of the memorial and a Jeannette Police Department patch.

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