John F. Foxhill Jr.

Corporal • U.S. Army • Serial 32750783

Entered service from New Jersey • Died February 1, 1945

Buried at Arlington Cemetery, Section Sunnyside Lot 246, 2900 State Road, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania

Corporal John F. Foxhill Jr. was born in 1910 to John F. and Annie Foxhill in Milford, Bucks County, PA. He had two older brothers, Frederick and Roy. By 1913 the family had moved to 813 North 66th Street in Philadelphia before moving to Camden. The Foxhills purchased a home at 2953 Hartford Road, the corner of Hartford and Argus Roads, in the Yorkship Square section of Camden (better known today as Fairview), on March 27, 1925. John Foxhill graduated from the Yorkship School on Collings Road.

John F. Foxhill Sr. had originally worked as a butcher but found work as a piano player in theaters showing silent movies, and later as a mechanic for the National Theater Supply Company, also running projection machines when needed. Young John Foxhill worked as a motion picture projectionist in Camden theaters and at the Jersey shore, including the Avalon Theater in Avalon, NJ. He liked big cars and fast driving; his niece recalled him commuting back and forth to the Jersey shore and getting from Clementon to Stone Harbor in 55 minutes by back roads. His brothers Roy and Fred also worked as projectionists in Camden, Clementon, and at the shore. In November of 1936 John Foxhill was the projectionist at the Broadway Theater in Camden.

The Foxhill family sold the house in Camden in May of 1937 and moved to 43 White Horse Avenue in Clementon, NJ. Inducted into the United States Army on February 12, 1943, John Foxhill was assigned to an infantry unit and completed combat infantry training. As he was large and not particularly fleet of foot, his commanding officer later assigned him to train as a radio operator. He was assigned to the permanent garrison at Camp Swift, near Bastrop, TX.

Corporal John Foxhill died on February 1, 1945, while stationed in Texas. He was driving a jeep when it blew a tire; he was thrown forward against the steering wheel and windshield, causing fatal injuries. His family was notified by telegram on February 3, 1945, that his body would arrive by train with a six-man military escort on February 5. He was brought to Oliver Bair’s Funeral Parlor at 18th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. Funeral services were held there on February 8, 1945. The six soldiers who escorted him home (Wells, Hillier, Weitz, Dougherty, O’Keefe, and Andrews) served as pallbearers. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John F. Foxhill, his brothers, and extended family.

John Foxhill rests at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, PA, next to his father, who passed away in 1946, and his mother, who joined them in 1958. He is remembered on the Clementon, NJ, War Memorial.