The time is here, now or never!
Shall we be slaves or free?
This is the question, choose your answer!
-- From the National Poem of Hungary, by Sándor Petőfi
Born at the start of World War II in a small rural settlement in Szatmár County, Eastern Hungary, József Kiss survived the front lines of German and Russian armies, sleeping in an underground bunker at night with his family and neighbors. Perhaps it is no wonder that he eventually become a Freedom Fighter in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, bravely joining with others in their attempt to establish democracy. The little boy that pointed at planes flying overhead and told his mother he would one day fly to America somehow knew that he was destined to leave his homeland.
József worked hard all his life. Upon his arrival in the United States, he worked on a farm in New York and began a family. He eventually established his own professional cleaning business and then moved into real estate development and property management as the owner of two mobile home parks in New York. He loved “playing in the dirt,” developing sites with his backhoe and bulldozer as he founded a community of tenants and maintained his property in pristine condition.
József greatly enjoyed the history, poetry, traditions, and folklore of his native land, and he was a gifted storyteller. He loved to cut a rug with his wife, dancing the csárdás, polka, and waltz. We miss Dad, his stories and advice that he always had ready for an open ear, and his grandchildren miss Papo’s scratchy beard rubs.
József’s wife of 64 years, Kathleen M. Kiss, predeceased him by only five days. In their passing, as in life, they were inseparable. József is survived by one brother and other relatives in Hungary, and three daughters, two sons, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren in the U.S.
Funeral Services will be held Friday, June 4, 2021 at 12 pm in the Bookhout Funeral Home, 357 Main Street, Oneonta.
Calling hours will be held in the funeral home from 11 am to 12 pm.
Memorial Contributions may be made to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation at https://www.alzinfo.org/ in loving memory of József.
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