I met Joe in June 2017 when I visited Madison for the first time with my then new-boyfriend, Tony. Joe was immediately was warm, kind, and had stories and jokes to offer me. I thought of him as a real life version of Mr. Holland from the movie Mr. Holland's Opus. I loved everyone's sense of humor, often centered around Joe; This was the family I wanted to marry into! 

When Tony told me we'd be getting up at 5a.m. to go for coffee with the "coffee buddies" I thought he was joking. Turned out he wasn't and those coffee mornings turned out to be some of my fondest memories of visiting Joe and Nancy. 

We will always keep Joe in our hearts especially while drinking a cup a coffee, eating cheese curds or pizza with thin crusts, meeting someone "neat" or browsing a good book or record shop. I'm so blessed to have known him for the short time I did. I never saw Tony happier than when we were together with Nancy, Joe, and Mike.

I remember that whenever I was in Wisconsin visiting Nana and Tata, Tata would make me chocolate blueberry oatmeal. I would wake up and wait for Tata to get back from the coffee shop, and he would make the oatmeal in the microwave and then add the Hershey's chocolate and the blueberries. Tata said that he had that oatmeal every morning since he was a kid. It was the best oatmeal. I miss him so much.
 

I first met Joe in 1977 when Whitey and I visited him at his Madison, WI graduate school apartment.  While we were talking, his phone rang but he couldn't locate the source of the ringing because of the pizza cartons, records, books, and a variety of dishes, glasses, cups etc that were making phone retrieval impossible.  (This was a land line phone-hard to misplace!) As the phone continued ringing, Joe found the cord and followed it until he found his phone under a pile of newspapers and pizza cartons and finally able to answer the call. True story!  My introduction to my finance's best friend.
This story is not to reference Joe as a sloppy person but to suggest he had many interests and enjoyed collecting items. He shared that collector bug with my husband-especially when it came to radios. Nancy and I would shake our heads when they discussed buying the newest-greatest ever radio that had just come on the market-which could get WGN without any problems. One could never have enough radios.
It was easy to fall in love with Joe and Nancy and then Tonearm and Mikey...we spent a lot of time together-he was my husband's best friend-easy to love Joe. Time well spent over the course of 43 years. Rest well Joe until we meet again.

My friendship with Joe spanned 70 years. Although I could write a lengthy tale about our friendship, perhaps it will suffice to recall fewer moments that may help me honor the boy who became a fine man.

Joe and I first met in junior high when he still played a C melody saxophone. Our bond was instant as we began to share and play our favorite music-traditional jazz. Of course we enjoyed all types of good music but our first shared love was traditional jazz.

During our Elkhorn High School years, Joe joined my "kid bands" performing on radio and television. We had the good fortune to play all over Walworth County and in several locations throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois. We visited Joe's relatives on the south side of Chicago several times which initiated our love of that fine city. 

While students at Milton College, Joe and I worked in his mom's restaurant. This was not necessarily a good thing for her restaurant or the industry in general!  We shared many memories and laughs at our restaurant experience and our ineptitude while on the job! Poor Santina! During our "restaurant days" we traveled to Chicago to make a record with Freddy Dee and the Pearls.  
Our Milton College learning experience continued to be musically amazing and we were roommates my last year. We met so many talented musician classmates at Milton and thrived under the instruction of many great music educators. Great times with a great friend.

Our professional lives landed us in different Wisconsin locations but we always remained in contact. Door County was always important to us.  Joe and I continued to be performing musicians and to teach band at our respective school districts.

51 weeks after Bonnie and I were married in 1978, Nancy and Joe pledged their lives to each other. I was honored to be best man at their wedding. 
Our daughter is blessed to have them as God Parents and we consider their sons to be part of the Minette family. (Housegoose Tony-Housegoose!)  We spent much time together, traveled to the Lagg family cabin in South Dakota several times-with many "Joe" moments. (Just ask Nancy about some of those!)  We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with Joe and Nancy in Hawaii.

Our breakfasts in Cambridge (half way between Madison and Whitewater) during our "Golden Years" were especially meaningful as we shared the everyday moments of our lives.

In October 2019 we met  Joe and Nancy in Door County for some quality together time. Little did we know when we said "goodbye and see ya" that it would be our last vacation together and the last time we saw Joe. We remained in contact via phone of course (both of us being cell phone whiz kids!) but were never face to face again.

My best friend-a good man with a heart of gold.
I miss him-where did 70 years go?
Whitey Minette

I remember in 5th grade meeting Mr. Kieraldo at Wileman school at a presentation to pick out which instrument we wanted to play. I really wanted to play the flute. But I had an overbite that wasn’t conducive to it. I remember him telling me “You don’t want to play the flute! You want to play percussion!” And I loved it, especially the mallet instruments- bells, chimes, xylophone, vibes. Playing the small bass drum and quads in marching band were some favorite times, along with Band Day at UW-Madison. I also enjoyed trips with the Jazz Band to Jazz Record Mart in the big city of Chicago. Even though I was a novice on the drum set, Mr. Kieraldo pushed me to play it for jazz band, even encouraging a solo or two. He was an inspirational teacher and friend. He will be missed