Pasquale Capozzi and Maria Mussatto

6/9/2024

Maria and Pasquale Capozzi

Pasquale (Cap) Capozzi was born to Giuseppe Capozzi and Luigia Colacurcio, on July 13, 1888, in Santo Stefano del Sole, Avellino, Campania, Italy. Maria Anna Mussatto was born to parents Domenico Mussatto and Anna Meyer on October 24, 1896 in Switzerland. Pasquale and Maria met while in Phoenix and they were married in Kelowna, BC, in 1921. They raised three sons: Joseph (Joe), Harold (Herb) and Tom.

At age 18, Cap arrived in Nelson, BC, where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway as section man, as a shop hand and in their stone quarry. Following this, he worked at sawmills, in both Nelson and Castlegar, BC. By 1910, he was in Revelstoke, BC, building basements in the summer, and hauling wood by mule power in winter. During his time he would often pass by the Bregolisse grocery store. One day, Assunta Bregolisse offered him a job as delivery boy and clerk. With two years experience in the grocery business, he moved to Trail, BC, to manage a grocery store. By 1918, he opened his own store in Phoenix, BC.

Everyone seemed to be talking about a special place called the Okanagan, so Cap made a trip here. He scouted out the whole valley, finally choosing Kelowna to be his new home. He opened a grocery store in Kelowna in 1919. About the same time, Maria moved her family candy store to Kelowna. Cap’s City Grocery Store did well, and Cap began buying real estate and shipping produce to Australia. In 1932, neighbouring businessmen Cap Capozzi and W A C Bennett bought into the Domestic Wine and By-Products Company, and renamed it Calona Wines. In the late 1950s, the Capozzi family built the Shops Capri (Capri Centre) and the Capri Motor Inn (Capri Hotel). By 1961, the Capozzi family took over complete management of Calona Wines.

Maria was very involved in the community. She acted as an English instructor for many of the early Italian families. She was a member of the first Italian Club choir and dance troupe and held key roles with the Catholic Women’s League. The Immaculate Conception Church Parish Hall was generously funded in honour of Pasquale and Maria Capozzi. They were also members of the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club.
Maria passed away on May 21, 1968 and Pasquale on September 8, 1976. They are both laid to rest in the Church of the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Kelowna.

Contributed by Donald E Rampone, co-chair of the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club Heritage Committee.

1 Comment

Cam Capozzi

10/18/2024 12:09:54 am

Thank you so very much Don Rampone. When Cap Lost his drivers license I was just turning 16 Years old. I remember the discussion in the house on Abbott Street. I remember how upset Cap was that they were taking his drivers license away from him. The wonderful Rcmp tried the very best to explain to Cap why he was not allowed to drive anymore. What I remember the most was before this incident I would be driving with Cap and he would come to the stop signs on Sutherland and turn to me and say, “is there anybody coming“ just for fun, I would bug him and say yeah slow Joe Casorso is coming down Richter. I started to realize he was losing his sight but he had such a good memory of the town. He knew where the intersections were, where he had to stop he just couldn’t see if there was anybody coming. He finally did drive through the intersection and hit another car. Amazing Tommy was coming down Richter from Kelowna Wines when this all happened. He had hit a car being driven by some young. I want to say punks by the time Tommy got there. They were telling my grandfather. He was a goof. As you can all well Imagine Even though it was Cap‘s fault, he said it was their fault and never call grandfather a goof. And as well, they did not know that the gentleman had stepped in the middle of them calling Cap goof was his son Tommy. And as you can imagine it didn’t go so well for the punk so we’re driving the car by this time the RCMP showed up. Now the wonderful RCMP trying their ver best to calm down the situation But realized that it was Cap fault, and that they needed to take your drivers license away from him very best to be kind to Cap. At this point, the incident is taken over to Abbott Street to the house, and Rcmp told him he would have to write and drivers exam and retake the test. I was at the house They handed him the driving test manual and they said if you could pass the written BC driving exam and then pass physical driving test, They would give him back his license. What many people don’t know is Cap had never really learned how to read in English. As a matter of fact, Cap never even signed his own bank checks, Before Maria died, lt was her running the show. After Maria died, Lena Fuoco signed the checks for Cap Capozzi. This is amazing that a man could become that successful who never signed his own name on a bank check. He was illiterate, then it got real funny. the Rcmp, we’re trying to explain to him that he had to write this test and handed him the drivers study manual, He says to them, “ Why do you hand me this book? I had the first car in the In BC. lol. I drove all around the BC with one of the only cars in BC So do not hand me a book I wrote the book on how to drive in BC. Cap couldn’t even sign his own name to a check and he’s telling the RCMP that he wrote the book! If it hadn’t been for Maria, I’m telling you there is not a chance Vapozzi Cash and Carry And the many immigrants have supported our store would’ve made it Now I know that there’s not many of the old Italians left But because he lost his drivers license, I got my first car given to me by the family. It was the limousine to drive Cap Capozzi around. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life because we would drive around and he would introduce me to the amazing Italian community that unfortunately my parents and my uncles abandoned. To sit with Cap to drive everywhere with him and be introduced to a world that unfortunately my siblings and cousins sister is my cousins never experienced was the most incredible experience of my life. To be with La Famila To be with family to understand how incredible we Italians are to be invited into La Familia.
I recently went to Europe to Santo Stefano And met with some of our relatives. With open arms, they held me hard and strong and loving, and they took me to where my grandfather grew up, What I couldn’t believe is, way up in the hills Behind Naples, I mean way up in the hills outside of Napoli I found family true and true. It took me to drive there from Naples hours and hours to go through village after village and ask in the poorest Italian I could muster Dove’ Santo Stefanie. As I moved further and further up that hill and Village after village, they started to ask me why was going to Santo Stefano I would tell them my grandfather was Pasquale Capozzi I want to see where he was born. And they would actually say, You are a Capozzi from Canada from Kelowna. And the next thing I knew they kept feeding me and inviting me into their houses and telling everybody you won’t believe who’s here it’s the grandson Capozzi, and by the time we got to Santo Stefano it was a parade.
What I can’t believe is when Cap decided he was going to leave Santo Stefano i’m driving an Alpha Romeo turbo and it took me a day to get to the top of the hill to the chu

Le prime famiglie italiane di Kelowna