John Habazin Inducted - St. Louis 1981
	John Habazin was born in Polanice, Yugoslavia near Zogorje on September 6, 1895.  He came to America as a talented brac player in the year 1913.  John settled in the town of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where he immediately began playing with a local tamburitza group.
	John later moved to Lodgetown, Alliquippa, Pennsylvania, where he met and married a lovely young lady Ljuba Plodinetz.  John and Ljuba opened a dairy and boarding house, and, as was the custom of the day, most of the tamburasi stayed at their boarding house.
	In addition to being a master of the brac, John played all the tamburitza instruments equally well.  He kept all the instruments hanging on the wall at his home, where all the tamburasi of that day would congregate to practice.  Every day was practice day as many of the players worked in the steel mills close by and would go directly to John's house after work.  Because of this, John was able to get the kids interested in Tambura because they would come to his house to listen to the old timers perform, and thereby also take lessons in the tambura.  John himself had two boys and three girls who played the tambura.
	John was a very accomplished song writer and teacher.  Among the tambura greats he played with were Tamburitza Giants, Milan Verni, Pete Perez, Curly Celich, Matt Pregorac, Steve Pocevich, Big Vinko, Jim Kovacevich, John Vidak and Frank Toplak.  You will note that three of the above mentioned are presently in the Hall of Fame.
	The groups that John played with performed in Vaudeville, recorded on the Columbia label, and performed on radio station KDKA, one of the top stations in the country and the largest in the Pittsburgh area.  The last record of John's group was 'The Old Timers', released in 1964.  However, he passed away before this recording was released.
	We honor and salute this great musician and his contribution to tambura and tamburasi.  John is a deserving appointee to the Hall of Fame.
Return to Hall of Fame Membership List