Philadelphia Daily News; Friday, April 22, 1988; Evening Edition; p42;
RETIREE WILLIAM A. KITTS, 90, WORKED 43 YEARS ON THE B & O
Services were to be held this morning for William A. Kitts, a retired yard foreman for the B&O Railroad, who died Monday. He was 90 and lived in Glenolden, Delaware County.
A lifelong resident of West Philadelphia until seven years ago, Kitts worked for the railroad for 43 years, much of that time as a brakeman in the yard at 33rd Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. It was often a hard job in hard weather, as he would recall for his grandson, Charles Marsilio, in later years.
"A brakeman in those days climbed on top of the car," said Marsilio. ''He'd lose friends every now and then, especially in cold weather when the ladders would freeze up and guys would slip and go under the wheels. Today it's safer, with the braking down below."
A short, wiry man who kept his health until he suffered a stroke three years ago, Kitts stayed active doing general repair work on houses for a real estate firm and shoveling snow from sidewalks until he was well into his 80s.
"He liked people and did an awful lot for them," Marsilio said. "He was the kind of person you'd like to be like. He was good to people to a fault."
Kitts was a quiet and reserved and "wasn't allowed to keep liquor in the house," but he enjoyed a beer now and then, Marsilio said. He said Kitts also enjoyed smoking "Camels, straight up," until he got emphysema five years ago.
Grandpop liked to tell his grandchildren about the Philadelphia of his youth, when he would ride on his big Indian motorcycle out the Chester Pike to Upland from West Philadelphia. Kitts said the pike was a dirt toll road then, and he would leave the road and cut a wide arc to avoid paying the toll.
Marsilio said that as a youth, his grandfather liked to go to Fairmount Park for spring water. And he talked about his uncles, who were Union Army Civil War veterans, and the battles they were in.
Jane Kitts, his wife of 57 years, said, "He was a very good husband, a good son, a good father and an all-around good man."
Kitts was a 50-year member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Gladys Marsilio; two other grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Oliver H. Bair Co.- Suburban West Funeral Home, 8645 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, Delaware County, where friends may call beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery, Lansdowne Avenue and School Lane, Drexel Hill, Delaware County.
William had been married twice and was a widower when he married Jane H Taylor in 1930 at Phila, PA. His daughter Gladys was by his first wife whom he married in 1920.
According to his Phila, PA birth record he was born 21 Sept 1897 as transcribed, but according to his Baptismal record he was born 12 Sept 1897 as written, while his WWI Draft Registration Card shows his birth on 14 Sept 1898, which I believe to be in error. SJM
RETIREE WILLIAM A. KITTS, 90, WORKED 43 YEARS ON THE B & O
Services were to be held this morning for William A. Kitts, a retired yard foreman for the B&O Railroad, who died Monday. He was 90 and lived in Glenolden, Delaware County.
A lifelong resident of West Philadelphia until seven years ago, Kitts worked for the railroad for 43 years, much of that time as a brakeman in the yard at 33rd Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. It was often a hard job in hard weather, as he would recall for his grandson, Charles Marsilio, in later years.
"A brakeman in those days climbed on top of the car," said Marsilio. ''He'd lose friends every now and then, especially in cold weather when the ladders would freeze up and guys would slip and go under the wheels. Today it's safer, with the braking down below."
A short, wiry man who kept his health until he suffered a stroke three years ago, Kitts stayed active doing general repair work on houses for a real estate firm and shoveling snow from sidewalks until he was well into his 80s.
"He liked people and did an awful lot for them," Marsilio said. "He was the kind of person you'd like to be like. He was good to people to a fault."
Kitts was a quiet and reserved and "wasn't allowed to keep liquor in the house," but he enjoyed a beer now and then, Marsilio said. He said Kitts also enjoyed smoking "Camels, straight up," until he got emphysema five years ago.
Grandpop liked to tell his grandchildren about the Philadelphia of his youth, when he would ride on his big Indian motorcycle out the Chester Pike to Upland from West Philadelphia. Kitts said the pike was a dirt toll road then, and he would leave the road and cut a wide arc to avoid paying the toll.
Marsilio said that as a youth, his grandfather liked to go to Fairmount Park for spring water. And he talked about his uncles, who were Union Army Civil War veterans, and the battles they were in.
Jane Kitts, his wife of 57 years, said, "He was a very good husband, a good son, a good father and an all-around good man."
Kitts was a 50-year member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Gladys Marsilio; two other grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Oliver H. Bair Co.- Suburban West Funeral Home, 8645 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, Delaware County, where friends may call beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery, Lansdowne Avenue and School Lane, Drexel Hill, Delaware County.
William had been married twice and was a widower when he married Jane H Taylor in 1930 at Phila, PA. His daughter Gladys was by his first wife whom he married in 1920.
According to his Phila, PA birth record he was born 21 Sept 1897 as transcribed, but according to his Baptismal record he was born 12 Sept 1897 as written, while his WWI Draft Registration Card shows his birth on 14 Sept 1898, which I believe to be in error. SJM
Philadelphia Daily News; Friday, April 22, 1988; Evening Edition; p42;
RETIREE WILLIAM A. KITTS, 90, WORKED 43 YEARS ON THE B & O
Services were to be held this morning for William A. Kitts, a retired yard foreman for the B&O Railroad, who died Monday. He was 90 and lived in Glenolden, Delaware County.
A lifelong resident of West Philadelphia until seven years ago, Kitts worked for the railroad for 43 years, much of that time as a brakeman in the yard at 33rd Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. It was often a hard job in hard weather, as he would recall for his grandson, Charles Marsilio, in later years.
"A brakeman in those days climbed on top of the car," said Marsilio. ''He'd lose friends every now and then, especially in cold weather when the ladders would freeze up and guys would slip and go under the wheels. Today it's safer, with the braking down below."
A short, wiry man who kept his health until he suffered a stroke three years ago, Kitts stayed active doing general repair work on houses for a real estate firm and shoveling snow from sidewalks until he was well into his 80s.
"He liked people and did an awful lot for them," Marsilio said. "He was the kind of person you'd like to be like. He was good to people to a fault."
Kitts was a quiet and reserved and "wasn't allowed to keep liquor in the house," but he enjoyed a beer now and then, Marsilio said. He said Kitts also enjoyed smoking "Camels, straight up," until he got emphysema five years ago.
Grandpop liked to tell his grandchildren about the Philadelphia of his youth, when he would ride on his big Indian motorcycle out the Chester Pike to Upland from West Philadelphia. Kitts said the pike was a dirt toll road then, and he would leave the road and cut a wide arc to avoid paying the toll.
Marsilio said that as a youth, his grandfather liked to go to Fairmount Park for spring water. And he talked about his uncles, who were Union Army Civil War veterans, and the battles they were in.
Jane Kitts, his wife of 57 years, said, "He was a very good husband, a good son, a good father and an all-around good man."
Kitts was a 50-year member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Gladys Marsilio; two other grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Oliver H. Bair Co.- Suburban West Funeral Home, 8645 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, Delaware County, where friends may call beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery, Lansdowne Avenue and School Lane, Drexel Hill, Delaware County.
William had been married twice and was a widower when he married Jane H Taylor in 1930 at Phila, PA. His daughter Gladys was by his first wife whom he married in 1920.
According to his Phila, PA birth record he was born 21 Sept 1897 as transcribed, but according to his Baptismal record he was born 12 Sept 1897 as written, while his WWI Draft Registration Card shows his birth on 14 Sept 1898, which I believe to be in error. SJM
RETIREE WILLIAM A. KITTS, 90, WORKED 43 YEARS ON THE B & O
Services were to be held this morning for William A. Kitts, a retired yard foreman for the B&O Railroad, who died Monday. He was 90 and lived in Glenolden, Delaware County.
A lifelong resident of West Philadelphia until seven years ago, Kitts worked for the railroad for 43 years, much of that time as a brakeman in the yard at 33rd Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. It was often a hard job in hard weather, as he would recall for his grandson, Charles Marsilio, in later years.
"A brakeman in those days climbed on top of the car," said Marsilio. ''He'd lose friends every now and then, especially in cold weather when the ladders would freeze up and guys would slip and go under the wheels. Today it's safer, with the braking down below."
A short, wiry man who kept his health until he suffered a stroke three years ago, Kitts stayed active doing general repair work on houses for a real estate firm and shoveling snow from sidewalks until he was well into his 80s.
"He liked people and did an awful lot for them," Marsilio said. "He was the kind of person you'd like to be like. He was good to people to a fault."
Kitts was a quiet and reserved and "wasn't allowed to keep liquor in the house," but he enjoyed a beer now and then, Marsilio said. He said Kitts also enjoyed smoking "Camels, straight up," until he got emphysema five years ago.
Grandpop liked to tell his grandchildren about the Philadelphia of his youth, when he would ride on his big Indian motorcycle out the Chester Pike to Upland from West Philadelphia. Kitts said the pike was a dirt toll road then, and he would leave the road and cut a wide arc to avoid paying the toll.
Marsilio said that as a youth, his grandfather liked to go to Fairmount Park for spring water. And he talked about his uncles, who were Union Army Civil War veterans, and the battles they were in.
Jane Kitts, his wife of 57 years, said, "He was a very good husband, a good son, a good father and an all-around good man."
Kitts was a 50-year member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Gladys Marsilio; two other grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Oliver H. Bair Co.- Suburban West Funeral Home, 8645 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby, Delaware County, where friends may call beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Arlington Cemetery, Lansdowne Avenue and School Lane, Drexel Hill, Delaware County.
William had been married twice and was a widower when he married Jane H Taylor in 1930 at Phila, PA. His daughter Gladys was by his first wife whom he married in 1920.
According to his Phila, PA birth record he was born 21 Sept 1897 as transcribed, but according to his Baptismal record he was born 12 Sept 1897 as written, while his WWI Draft Registration Card shows his birth on 14 Sept 1898, which I believe to be in error. SJM
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