The Zippilli Family of Camden

This is another in a series of pages about families that lived and thrived in Camden. The Zippillis were a large family — at least 16 children in the generation born in the 1920s and 1930s — who through career or marriage were deeply embedded in the fabric of life in Camden. In August of 2008 I received a number of e-mails within a day of each other from members of the extended family regarding the South 4th Street and Line Street pages. Upon reflection, the creation of this page to tie the story together seemed the logical course to take.

Thanks to Gabriel Zippilli and Luci Zippilli MacPherson for their inspiration to start this page and assistance in assembling it, and to other members of the family who have chimed in via e-mail. This story is in many ways the story of the many Italian families who first pursued the American dream in Camden.

The beginning of the story of the Zippilli family in Camden is somewhat shrouded, as all the records regarding their arrival in the USA and moves to Camden are not at hand. However, using what has been found through on-line sources and Camden City Directories, and with a good bit of help, one can proceed with confidence that a fairly accurate reading of the facts can be given.

Amedeo Zippilli arrived in the United States in 1910, according to Census records. His brother David and first cousin Domenico arrived in 1914, also according to Census records.

Draft Cards for the three men indicate that by June of 1917 the two brothers had married women they had met in America, and had settled in Camden, New Jersey. Amedeo lived at 252 Pine Street, while his brother made his home at 220 Clinton Street. Their cousin Domenico had gone to Devon, Pennsylvania and had married Rosa DeAscentiis.

The 1920 Census shows that Domenico and Rosa, who had come to the United States in 1903, were living in Trediffryn Township, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The young couple apparently had spent some time in Canada, as Rosa Zippilli gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Assunta, there in 1918.

Regarding the two Zippilli brothers, the 1920 Census reveals that Amedeo and David Zippilli, their wives and children were all living in a home at 342 Line Street in South Camden. Both men worked in shipyards, Amedeo as a laborer, while David as a shipyard carpenter. Amedeo and Maria Zippilli then had four children — Domenick, Vincent, Rosie, and Felix. David and Jenny Zippilli then had one daughter, Anna — two more would follow, Rose and Marie.

The 1924 Camden City Directory shows that Amedeo Zippilli was still working as a laborer and living at 342 Pine Street. By 1927 he had gone into business, operating a grocery store at 821 South 4th Street, which he ran through the time the 1929 Camden City Directory was compiled. Shortly afterwards he sold the building and the business to his cousin Domenico, who had been living in Pennsylvania.

When the Census was taken in April of 1930, Domenico and Rosa Zippilli were living at 821 South 4th Street with six of their children. Five more would follow. The Zippilli children and the year of their birth are as follows:

Gabriel Zippilli wrote in August of 2008, “My mother Rosa ran the store when my father would get jobs outside the store. My parents had twelve children that lived in that house at one time or another.”

Domenico Zippilli operated the store on South 4th Street until his passing in 1951; Rosa joined him in 1979. It should be noted that the store, located on the southwest corner of South 4th and Division Streets, was literally at the heart of the Italian community in South Camden. On the southeast corner was Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church; on the northwest corner, 819 South 4th Street, was “The White House,” the funeral home and post office sub-station operated by Antonio Mecca. A candy store was located for many years on the northeast corner.

Gabriel Zippilli wrote in 2008: “At the northeast corner there was a candy store, it had a soda fountain with stools that spun around. The candy store was a favorite hang out for a number of reasons. One reason it was popular was that it had a sidewalk cover that surrounded the entire building. We could hang out there even if it was rainy. The candy store was run by a man named Bill Ezzi and his wife Louisa; they had three daughters Nicole, Annette, and Ann Marie, and one son Bill Jr.”

David Zippilli had moved to 815 Dauphin Street by 1930, and moved to 823 Dauphin by the spring of 1942. He and his family moved to 420 Pine Street by 1947. Amedeo Zippilli moved to 1498 South 9th Street. He was working for Abbot’s Dairies in the early 1940s. By 1947 he had gone into the bar business at 1819 Broadway with his son. Their bar was known, appropriately enough, as Zippilli’s Cafe. They later were successful in that same line in Cherry Hill NJ. Amedeo Zippilli passed away in April of 1967, his wife in 1979.

Joseph Carbone, 18, of 336 Walnut street, was stabbed in the face by a Negro wielding a penknife at Ninth street and Kaighn avenue early yesterday.

Carbone was walking with vincent zippilli, 1498 South Ninth street, when they met the man, he said. An argument started, he told police, and the man stabbed him and ran away. Carbone was treated at Cooper Hospital. He gave police a description of his assailant.

On October 18, 1943 Joseph S. Zippilli was assigned to the 766th Bomb Squadron, 461st Bomb Group, as a gunner and flight engineer, with the rank of Technical Sergeant. He was a member of the 461st Bomb Group’s Crew 49. The Group began flying missions from a base in Italy in April of 1944. On the seventh mission, April 13, 1944, his plane, piloted by 2nd Lt. Paul S. Mowery, was damaged and the crew forced to bail out.

The mission was to bomb the Duna Tokol Aircraft Components Factory at Budapest, Hungary. On this mission a total of 58 enemy aircraft were seen. Several encounters were experienced, three enemy planes were destroyed and three more claimed as probable. Twin-engine enemy airplanes fired rockets at the formation. Single engine enemy airplanes flew parallel with the Group at a safe distance and radioed headings, altitude, and air speed to their ground installations. Flak over the target was intense, accurate, and heavy. Two bombers were lost over the target. 1st Lt. Charles W. Bauman, flying the deputy lead position in “A” Flight of the second Section, had part of a wing shot off by flak. His plane fell into the plane in the number 4 position of the same flight, which was piloted by 2nd Lt. Paul S. Mowery. A third plane flown by 2nd Lt. Kay B. Steele, which had come off the target with the formation, failed to return to the base. Colonel Glantzberg, who was flying as co-pilot in a plane in the second Section, led a small formation of planes in chasing attacking JU-88s away from this damaged plane. He was unable, however, to stay with the plane because of an undercast. Fifteen planes were damaged over this target.

Technical Sergeant Zippilli and eight others of his crew bailed out and were captured.

I was assigned a B-24 bomber whose mission was to bomb an airplane manufacturing plant in Budapest, Hungary. Then one of the planes in our formation got hit by anti aircraft fire, lost control of the plane and collided with us. So our officer in charge gave us the order to bail out of our aircraft. The nine of us were sent to Stalag Luft 3, a prison camp in Poland, where we stayed for nine months until the Russians came in. Then we were forced to march to Mousberg, Germany, to be transferred to Stalag 7A, where we were liberated April 29, 1945. In all, we were in captivity for one year and 16 days,” said Zippilli.

The Children of Amedeo & Marie Zippilli

The Children of David & Jenny Zippilli

The Children of Domenico & Rose Zippilli

Spellings are as published in the Directory

Spellings are as published in the Directory

Spellings are as published in the Directory

Spellings are as published in the Directory

Spellings are as published in the Directory

Spc. Marimer Navarrete, 444th MPAD/NJARNG

In the front of rows of chairs spread across Doughboy Field for the Burlington County Medal ceremony, there were only a few seats reserved for a small group of veterans. It was special recognition for old soldiers that knew the enemy better than anyone else because they were captured during the war, and the ceremony brought back memories of being Prisoners of War (POWs).

“It was very hard. I was 170 pounds when I was captured and when I was liberated I was 115 pounds,” said John L. Fox, a 78 year old POW from Medford Lakes.

Fox was part of the 303rd Bomb Group, 360th Bomb Squadron of the 18th Air Force, based on Molisworth, England when he was captured on June the 20th 1944.

“We were on our 20th mission flying and bombing Hamburg, Germany, in a B-17 bomber when we were shot down by flak (anti-aircraft fire) that knocked out our engine. We crash-landed and all of the nine-crew members walked away off the airplane safe, but we were captured immediately. After I spent five days in solitary confinement, I was moved to Stalag Luft 4, a prison camp in Poland, where I stayed until January 1945, when the Russian troops started to come in. Since they don’t want us to fight with the Russians against them, they took us out and we had to walk for about 600 miles,” said Tech. Sgt. Fox.

“It took me 17 days to get home from Germany. It was July 1945 when I saw my country again at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, but I was so glad that I did,” concluded Fox. He is now married and has seven children, 21 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Like Fox, his friend Joseph S. Zippilli, recalls being captured.

Tech. Sgt. Zippilli was of the 461 Bomb Group, 766 Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force, based in Italy when he was captured April 13, 1944.

“I was assigned a B-24 bomber whose mission was to bomb an airplane manufacturing plant in Budapest, Hungary. Then one of the planes in our formation got hit by anti aircraft fire, lost control of the plane and collided with us. So our officer in charge gave us the order to bail out of our aircraft. The nine of us were sent to Stalag Luft 3, a prison camp in Poland, where we stayed for nine months until the Russians came in. Then we were forced to march to Mousberg, Germany, to be transferred to Stalag 7A, where we were liberated April 29, 1945. In all, we were in captivity for one year and 16 days,” said Zippilli. He was, until December 2001, the commander of the Garden State’s Chapter #2 of the American Ex POW’s for nine years.

Two of his brothers were called to duty for World War II at the same time. One was in the Air Force assigned to the Pacific and the other was infantry in Italy.

He was pleased with the honor being bestowed by the county. “I think it is wonderful. It’s a real happy occasion,” said Zippilli.

Corporal Thomas Calderone was in Company A when the 34th Infantry Regiment was assigned to Bataan, a peninsula in the Philippine Islands, on the first engagement the Army had with the Japanese.

“We were in a place called Mount Samont when the Regiment surrendered to the Japanese on March 1942. I then went to Corregidor, an island in-between the China Sea and the Manila Bay, where I was captured a month later on May 9th. I managed to get ahead thanks to my faith in God, because what the Japanese gave us was not enough to keep us alive,” said Calderone who at the time was 22 years old.

“They made us work very hard in the steel mills. It was a bad camp where there was only one water faucet and they shut it off in the afternoon. Imagine, there were all these American prisoners, how you are going to get water? I had to get up at three o’clock in the morning to get in line to get the water. They were very cruel about that.”

“They beat you up all the time and only gave you 500 grams of rice a day. They were nasty people, they had no regard to the POW. If you had Malaria or Dysentery, they wouldn’t give you any medicine or if you broke a bone you would just lay down and hope you’d get better. They let you stay there and suffer,” added Calderone, who was a POW for three years and 4 months.

“After that, I worked as POW in Clark Field, cutting the grass and unloading aerial bombs off the freight trains. In comparison, Clark Field was a good camp because we had a lot of running water.”

“Then in August 1944, they needed work details in Japan, so I was moved to the main Japanese island where I worked in steel mills until Aug. 15, 1945, when they (the Japanese) surrendered to the United States.”

“We were lucky to be alive because they were going to kill the POW’s when they found out they were losing the war,” said Calderone, who is now 85 years old and lives in Browns Mills.

The former POWs think they are lucky to be here now. But we are the lucky ones. Every day there are fewer left as time exacts its inexorable toll. So they honor us by the gift of their presence, making us proud to share in the legacy of heroism they have so selflessly given to our country.

October 25, 2000 Vincent A., Sr. of Laurel Springs, formerly of Camden. Age 84. Devoted husband of Marie A. (nee Leon). Loving father of Vincent A., Jr. of Williamstown, John of Pomona and Thomas A. of Laurel Springs. Dear grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of 3. There will be a viewing from 10 to 11am Friday at St. Agnes RC Church, Coles and Little Gloucester Rds., Blackwood. Funeral Mass 11am at church. Interment New St. Mary’s Mausoleum, Bellmawr. Arrangements Gardner Funeral Home, Runnemede and Bellmawr.

(nee Leon) on May 20, 2002 of Laurel Springs. Age 83. Beloved wife of Vincent A., Sr. Loving mother of Vincent A., Jr. of Williamstown, John of Pomona and Thomas A. of Laurel Springs. Dear sister of Teresa Straiges and Helen Merola. Proud grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 5. Family and friends are invited to attend her viewing Thursday morning from 10am to 10:45am at St. Agnes RC Church, 701 Gloucester and Little Coles Road, Blackwood. Funeral Mass 11am, Thursday at the church. Entombment New St. Mary’s Mausoleum, Bellmawr.

(nee Lauria) on July 15, 2001 of Waterford, formerly of Runnemede. Age 77. Beloved wife of the late Dominic L. Loving mother of Diana B. Querubin and husband Michael and the late Dominic A. Sister of Anne Zito and Florence Terregino. Proud grandmother of Michele, Nicole and Dena Blizzard and her husband James. Great grandmother of Dean Michael and Natalia. There will be a viewing from 9 to 10:45 am Thursday morning at Assumption Church, 318 Carl Hasselhan Dr., Atco. Funeral mass 11 am. Interment Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill. Donations may be made in Irene’s name to the American Cancer Society, 410 White Horse Pike, PO Box 159, Haddon Heights, NJ 08035. Funeral arrangements under the direction of Gardner Funeral Home, Runnemede & Bellmawr.

Of Morristown, NJ, on Tuesday June 29, 2004. Sister of Mrs. Mary Moore and Rose Zippilli. Aunt of three nieces and one nephew. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, July 2, 10:30 AM, at St. Lucy Chapel, Villa Walsh, Morristown, NJ. Interment Villa Walsh Cemetery. Hours of Visitation at Villa Walsh, Thursday, 3–8 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Religious Teachers Filippini, St. Joseph’s Hall Infirmary Building Fund, Villa Walsh, 455 Western Ave., Morristown, NJ 07960. Arrangements by Doyle Funeral Home, Inc., Morristown, NJ.

Born April 7, 1921, died July 11, 2005, Rose lived her life in Camden, NJ. Prior to her retirement Rose was employed by the City of Camden as a Librarian for thirty eight years. She is survived by her sister Mary Moore, her nieces JoAnn Santoro (Stephen), Ellen Moore, Maria Moore and her nephew Joseph Moore (Debra), also many grand nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by a sister Anna Zippilli. Rose lived her life devoted to her family. Burial will be private at the convenience of the family. A Mass of Celebration of Rose’s life will be held Saturday, July 16, 2005 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Broadway and Markets Sts., Camden, NJ. Arrangements by the Eichel Funeral Home.