Edward Kelly Sr., 87, spent working life on the docks

When he was 14, Edward W. Kelly Sr. had to end his formal education, finishing eighth grade at a school in Queen Village, because his father had just died.

Then he did odd jobs to help support the household, in taprooms and on the docks, not far from where his family lived near Second and Catharine Streets.

Years later, after decades as a longshoreman, he wanted quiet, daughter Marie Boody said.

"My father purchased a plot of land in Swedesboro, 61/2 acres," in the late 1970s, she said. "And every weekend, he would go down there and plant trees."

Once the land was paid off, he built the family home.

"It was a blank farmer's field," she said. "Now it looks like a forest."

On Sunday, Feb. 22, Edward W. Kelly Sr., 87, who spent much of his working life on the Philadelphia and Camden docks, died of a heart attack at home.

At 17, after being turned down for military service because of poor eyesight, "he lied about his age," his daughter said, and joined the Merchant Marine, working as a deckhand on convoys of supply ships crossing the North Atlantic during World War II.

Though he never saw combat, she said, "his nickname was Shipwreck," because in the 1950s his ship was involved in a minor accident with another off the South Jersey coast.

In 1954, after leaving the Merchant Marine, he became a longshoreman, mostly on Pier 40 on the Delaware River. For one term, he was an elected delegate for a local of the International Longshoremen's Association.

In the mid-1970s, his daughter said, "he got a job in New Jersey, because it was easier," working as a rigger for Holt Cargo Systems in Camden, attaching cables to containers being loaded onto or unloaded from ships.

Back problems forced him to retire in the mid-1980s, she said.

And in the late 1980s, he and his wife, Marie, moved from their home near 64th Street and Paschall Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia to the home that he had built on his former farmland.

He didn't plant fruit trees or Christmas trees to make a dollar off the land, his daughter said.

"The first tree was a red oak, and the name of the property was Kelly's Red Oak," she said. He planted "lots and lots of black walnut trees, just to have them."

Besides his wife of 59 years and daughter, Mr. Kelly is survived by sons Edward W. Jr., Frank, George, and John; daughter Ann Mills; a brother; a sister; 19 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 9 to 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at Costantino Funeral Home, 231 W. White Horse Pike, Berlin, before a 10 a.m. memorial service there. Interment is to be private.

Donations may be sent to the Salvation Army, 1865 Harrison Ave., Camden, N.J. 08105.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.costantinofh.com.