Edward H. Wicker

EDWARD H. WICKER was born in Pennsylvania on June 14, 1911 to Henry and Hermina Wicker. The 1920 Census shows that his mother had passed away, leaving his father with seven children, Frances, Francis, John, Frederick, Edward, Mary, and Joseph, and a grand-daughter, Margaret. The family was living at 2629 Howard Street in Philadelphia, next door to a widow, Mary Heinz, and her children, Robert, Daniel, Regina, Grace, and Mary. During the 1920s Henry Wicker and Mary Heinz married, and the older children went out into the world. By April of 1930 the family had moved to National Park, New Jersey. Henry Wicker was doing iron work for a crane company at the time. The only children at home at this point were Henry, Joseph, and step-sister Mary Heinz.

Edward Wicker married and came to Camden with his wife Elva and daughters Edna and Mary in the early 1940s. The 1943 Camden City Directory shows him living in North Camden at 217 York Street and working as a machinist at the Penn-Jersey Shipyard.

Edward Wicker and family moved to 940 Fern Street after the 1943 Directory was compiled. By the end of 1946 the Wickers had moved to 904 Penn Street. Edward Wicker had by this time gone to work at the RCA-Victor plant in Camden. In the late 1950s he moved to 1104 Kaighn Avenue in South Camden. In 1961 Edward Wicker moved in with his daughter Edna and her husband, Bob Mehmet, where he lived out his days.

A very-civic minded man, Edward Wicker was involved in a number of activities in the community. Along with his older brother William he was a participant in the annual Mummers New Years’ Day parade, and he founded an Easter Parade in North Camden. He ran dances at the Sewell School in North Camden and also was involved and served as president of the 210 Youth Association, which conducted a youth baseball program for boys aged 10 to 15.

Son-in-law Bob Mehmet wrote:

I’m married to his Edward Wicker’s daughter and we would help him at these events. He was a New Years shooter for many years he started to get a parade together. Ed was employed at RCA and on the holidays he would dress up as George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and parade around the plant. He played Easter Bunny in North Camden for years with a wheel barrel full with Easter candy and would hand it out to the kids in the streets. He also played Santa Claus and ran a dance in Sewell School on Friday nights for the kids around 7th and Vine.

Edward Wicker was the president of 210 Youth Association. These kids played baseball in a league with other teams in North Camden on 10th street, between Pearl and Elm Streets. The kids seemed to be around 10–15. The boys on the team that won the most games got trophies at the end of the summer. There wasn’t a lot of money, but they got some of the local business to donate so they could have tee-shirts with names. The dances on Friday night at Sewell School, they gave prizes to the best dancers and the money collected went to the Little League, and no kid was turned away if they had no money to get in the dance.

Edward H. Wicker eventually, like many others, moved out of North Camden. He retired from RCA-Victor, where he had worked for many years, and spent his last days as a resident of Collingswood, New Jersey. Edward H. Wicker passed away on August 7, 2000.

Ed Wicker enjoyed every minute of his activities, be it the Mummers, playing the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, running the dances and the 210 Youth Association, and playing other roles in costume. He also enjoyed dancing and the seashore. His family remembers that he would always say three words whenever one of these activities would conclude, “That was great!.” One could very well say that Ed Wicker’s greatest legacy is his example of a life well lived, when one looks back and says “That was great!”