THIRD GENERATION

4. Charles Martin Keffer ^{(5)(6) (7)(1) (2)(3)} was born on 18 Oct 1873 in Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 20 May 1874 in Reading, Pa by Rev B. D. Zweizig Lutheran Church of Wyomissing.⁽⁴⁾ Baptized on May 20,1874 by Rev B. D. Zweizig. Sponsors - his parents. He died on 25 Mar 1946 in Reading, Pa. He was buried on 25 Mar 1946 in Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Pa.
Obituary
Charles M. Keffer

Charles M Keffer 73, a retired Reading Company employee, died yesterday in his home, 922 Perry St. A lifelong resident of this city, he was a son of the late William S. and Mary (Pohlman) Keffer. He was employed by the Railroad Company for 48 years. Keffer was a member of the St Stephens Reformed Church, the National Association of Retired Veteran Railway Employees, the Marion Fire Company and its beneficial association, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Surviving are his widow, Clara Mae (Lachman) Keffer: six sons: William H., at home: Leonard A., Pottstown; Russell C., Chester R., Donald L., and Rodney S., all of Reading, five grandchildren, and a sister, widow of Cornelius Fromm, Reading. Services Friday at 3 p.m. in the T C Arman, Inc, Funeral Parlors, the Rev Dr. Morris D Slifer officiating. Burial in Charles Evans Cemetery (5th & Robinson).

Cause of death - arteriosclerosis of the aerta & uremic poison

Occupation: Brakeman - Penna and Reading Railroad Company




Lived at Kissinger near Greenwich (from Boyd's Directory of Reading 1874-1875)

Charles Martin Keffer lived during the Industrial Revolution, which had its impact on Reading area, most notably on the Reading Railroad.

Although Charles was only a mere lad at the age of 4, the violence of the Industrial Revolution manifested itself in the form of a Railroad Massacre in 1877 in downtown Reading at 7th & Penn Streets, when an Army Militia fired into a group of protesting laborers and killed several of them. Such was the climate of the time for the Railroads when Charles was a young boy.

The year 1877 should have been a period of triumph and pride for the Philadelphia & Reading as its entry into the coal mining business and the takeover of the Schuylkill Canal had made it the wealthiest in the nation. But instead the year came to symbolize the worst time in the history of the railroad and the city as the two were horribly intertwined in the night of the "The Massacre in the Seventh Street Cut". The company, despite its immense real estate holding, was terribly over-extended and deeply in debt.
The coal business that year was in a slump. The railroads nationally were being challenged for the first time by a union representing their enginemen and the P&R was no exception. In the spring most of the big carriers, including the P&R, cut the salaries of their employees by 10 per cent, and there were dark mutterings of a strike. Without warning, 350 of the Reading's 450 engineers walked off the job. They were replaced by non-union employees. Then the young Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers demanded that all railroads in the east, including the P&R, restore the wage cuts and give them a 20 percent raise to boot. P&R General Manager John E. Wooten's response was a warning to the employees that if they did not quit the union they would be fired. That caused some of the less militant strikers to go back to work. But others were only merely angered by the threat, and they vented their anger in series of meeting in downtown Reading. By mid-July the situation on the eastern railroads had reached the crisis point. On the 16th, a mob of striking Baltimore & Ohio engineers rioted in Morgantown, W. Va. Three days later the same thing happened in Pittsburgh where the Pennsy men attacked and burned the railroad depot to the ground. The militia was called in and in the ensuing rioting 28 people were killed. That was the situation just prior to the first unrest in Reading which began on the afternoon of Sunday, July 22. A group of striker's set fire a pile of shingles in the yard north of the Elm Street. A few patrolmen from the Reading police force, including Chief Peter Cullen, surveyed the angry mob and decided there was little they could and retired to the Penn Street. By early evening the crowd had grown to several thousand, including strikers, some of their wives and even youngsters.


They swarmed across the freight yards, headed for the three-year-old Outer Station where they set up a din outside the office of Wooten who was in telegraphic contact with President Franklin B. Gowen in Philadelphia. When a long freight train headed for Philadelphia appeared above the station the crowd swarmed around it, blocking the train's path. Soon boxcars began blazing as members of the mob set them afire. The strikers were in control of the yard. Shortly after midnight the western sky was lit up as the flames swept over the Lebanon Valley bridge which carried the P&R's tracks over the Schuylkill River to Harrisburg. That spectacular sight was the end of the activity that night. The crowd was back in the yard again Monday, emboldened by their unimpeded demonstrations of the night before. Although Gowen and the other company officials were pleading for outside help - both the mayor of Reading and the Berks County sheriff were spending the weekend away from the city - there was no appropriate local official available to relay the request formally to state or federal authorities. Finally, a telegram was send from to the state attorney from Gowen charging that a state of insurrection was in effect in Reading and asking for military help. Finally, militia troops from Easton were mobilized and put on a special train for Reading. The mob by now was in full control in the Reading yard. An express train destined for Philadelphia began moving south from the station, but hundreds of people on the tracks slowed its progress to a walk. Hundreds more, demonstrators and spectators - jeering the troops and cheering the strikers - had lined up along the stone walls along the two-block long cut between Penn and Walnut streets. As the train inched into the cut, the crowd of strikers on the ground swarmed in front of it until the slowly moving locomotive was forced to stop. While this was happening, the special train bearing troops from Easton arrived at the Outer Station and the soldiers - mostly young and inexperienced - disembarked and waited for orders. At about the same time a contingent of the feared P&R Coal & Iron police from the coal region arrived from the north and deployed near the station. The company official, who included Wooten, Attorney General George Baer and Capt. Robert Linden, chief of the C&I police, held a strategy session with the militia's commander, General Franklin Reeder. It was decided the troops, with the C&I police, would move through the yard to the stalled train and free it. As the soldiers and police moved toward the upper end of the cut, their rifles at the ready, the crowd grew louder and more vocal. By the time they were alongside the train, the crowd along the wall had begun throwing rocks down on the advancing soldiers. Nobody was ever able to identify where it came from, but suddenly there was the sound of explosives - somebody opened fire! A fusillade of shots crackled in the cut. When the smoke had cleared and the screams and shouts of dozens who where wounded subsided, 10 persons lay dead. The carnage ended with that one volley of shots. The stunned and subdued strikers helped pick up the dead and wounded. Amazingly, there were no official investigations beyond a coroner's jury, which held two weeks of hearings. It issued a vague report not laying the blame for the 10 deaths on any specific individual. The Lebanon Valley bridge was rebuilt, other signs of the carnage were repaired or painted over. The engineers went back to work and the Philadelphia & Reading resumed it prodigious coal hauling. But the memory of that terrible night would persist for generations of Reading citizens, especially among its railroad fraternity.




Philadelphia was headquarters for two big railroads during the Industrial Revolution, but today one of them seems to be remembered principally for its terminal, which now houses a wonderful market.
The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad always played second fiddle to its cross-town rival, the august Pennsylvania Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad was a vital trunk line and one of the largest corporations of its day. Entire books have been written about single trains of the Pennsy, while the Reading has endured relative obscurity.

It was a railroad that put scrapple on the menus of its dining cars, build depots designed by Frank Furness and founded Port Richmond to receive the torrents of stone coal that poured unceasingly down to the Delaware. For all that, however, the Reading was always something of an outsider in Philadelphia, dominated as it was by outlanders.


For much of its history, the Reading Railroad's corporate logo was a black diamond. The symbolism wasn't subtle, but it was accurate: The anthracite coal mined in and around Schuylkill County was the Reading's livelihood. Anthracite is found in the Pottsville area and almost nowhere else in the state. It is much harder than the more common bituminous coal, and it burns cleaner - when it burns at all (the stuff is hard to light; thus its nickname, "stone coal")
Holton writes that nobody thought much about anthracite when a canal along the Schuylkill was chartered in 1805. (No waterway was safe from canal fever in the early 1800's, and the Schuylkill Canal was just one part of Pennsylvania's ambitious public-works program). At the time, wood was still plentiful and adequate for fuel needs, so anthracite found little market. When Abraham Potts (Pottsville's founder) took 28 tons of coal down the new canal to Philadelphia, the toll collectors didn't know what to charge for the unusual cargo.
That changed soon enough, and by the mid-1830's, as ironmaking began to grow, coal was in big demand. A railroad was chartered to get through the Blue Mountains to head of navigation, near Pottsville. Fabulously wealthy Stephan Girard provided part of the railroad's financing and in 1831 the first "train" - two horse-drawn cars - trundled between Tamaqua and Port Clinton, a distance of about 15 miles.
Those who build the little railroad believed that canal travel was slow and subject to winter freezes and therefore was obsolete, and by 1833 they had obtained a charter to build track all the way to Philadelphia. The complacent Canal Company was caught napping.
This new road, the Philadelphia & Reading, was engineered by an energetic young Virginia named Moncure Robison. He did his job well, probably too well; the double-tracked railroad had easy grades and a fine right of way - unlike the shoddy roller-coaster construction that was the norm - but it all cost so much that the Reading started life heavily mortgaged.
The money came from London in those days, and the Reading was so dependent on it that it even operated its trains in the British manner, keeping to the left. Service between Reading and Philadelphia began in 1838; the first run through to Pottsville was in 1842, which was also the year Port Richmond was opened. Business was good but alas, only sporadically profitable. The wolves were rarely far from the doors of headquarters, on South Fourth Street in Philadelphia.
But the railroads grew and coal tonnage swelled. In Philadelphia, the Reading established its own web of commuter lines. One of the special benefits of the book for local historians is Holton's careful recounting of each of the tiny parts of what became the larger reading. The Chestnut Hill Railroad Co., today's chestnut Hill east SEPTA line, was opened in 1845. Characteristically, the Pennsylvania later built the Chestnut Hill West line, apparently out of sheer spite.
Running a 19th-century railroad was a tough business, and the Reading's history is tinged with blood. The Reading and its president at the time, Mount Airy- born Franklin B. Gowen, played a pivotal role in one of the most troubling chapters in the state's industrial history.



The region's first coal miners were mostly Welsh or Cornish immigrants; but soon they were joined by the Irish. Ethnic tensions developed, and the late 1860's were blaming an Irish secret society called the Molly Maguires for numerous terrorist attacks and murders in the coal region.
Frank Gowen was the son of an Irish Protestant immigrant, a fact that became significant in light of his zeal in tracking down the Catholic "Mollies". Gowen had once been district attorney in Schuylkill County, but by 1876 he was president of the Reading. Nonetheless, he got himself appointed special counsel in Schuylkill County to direct prosecution of the Mollies, whom he also blamed for labor unrest and vandalism on the railroad.
On a single day in 1877, 10 alleged Mollies were executed in Pottsville and Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) as a result of Gowen's prosecution. The Reading trains even provided special trains to carry the corpses away and the Mollies back was finally broken.
Gowen proved to be bad news not just to the Mollies, but to the Reading Railroad itself. A corporate adventurer of the sort that modern Americans would recognize. He embarked on ill-advised diversification just as the Reading seemed to be nearing financial security. He speculated in coalmines while the bottom was falling out of the coal market, and managed to lead the Reading into bankruptcy twice during the 1880's alone. The one who picked up the pieces was a young New York financier named J.P. Morgan, who among other machinations, set up a syndicate of investors to reorganize the Reading - without Gowen.
As one syndicate member bluntly acknowledged to the Philadelphia Times; "We have all combined to get him out of railroad management, just as all the powers of Europe combined to crush Napoleon... He is an able and brilliant man and in some respects a veritable Napoleon, but he is no railroad manager... The trouble with Mr. Gowen is that he wants to be fighting all the time".
Gowen drifted for a few years then committed suicide in 1889. As for the Reading under Morgan, it ceased to be a truly independent, Philadelphia-run Company, ironically, just about the same time as its showpiece terminal and headquarters was rising on East Market Street.
The Reading Co. survives today as a real estate and investment company; it still owns the terminal, which saw its last train in 1984 - and is the Reading Terminal Market's landlord. Its former railroad subsidiary, dragged down in the Penn Central debacle, is today part of Conrail, and its coal trains still roll.
He was married to Clara May Lachman on 11 Jun 1903 in Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ I James I Good hereby certify that on the eleventh day of June ,1903 at Reading, Charles M. Keffer and Clara Mae Lachman were by me united in marriage in accordance with the license issued by the clerk of the Orphans Court of Berks County, Pa Vol 27 - No 727
Rev James I Good

5. Clara May Lachman ^{(1)(2) (3)} was born on 29 Sep 1879 in Blandon, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ She was christened on 24 Jan 1880. ⁽⁴⁾ Clara May Lachman was born Sept 29, 1879, and was baptized Jan 24 1880 by Rev W.T.P Davis,Reformed Pastor, her parents being sponsors. She died on 10 Mar 1956 in Reading, Pa. She was buried on 10 Mar 1956 in Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Pa. Clara May Keffer

Mrs Clara May (Lachman) Keffer 76, widow of Charles M Keffer, 616 Lanscaster Ave died last night in the Reading Hospital. She was a member of St Stephens Evangelical and Reformed Church, the Golden Age Club Royal Neighbors of America and the 50 Plus Club. She was native of Blandon, daughter of the late Henry and Sallie (Kerchoff) Lachman and resided in Reading 65 years. Her husband died in 1946. Surviving are these sons: William H., Reading; Russell C., Pennside; Leonard A., Pottstown; Chester R., Donald L., and Rodney S. Reading; seven grandchildren, and one sister Mary, wife of Robert Foxhill of Reading. The Rev. Dr. Morris D Slifer will officiate at funeral services in Cramp Funeral Home on Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Burial will be made in Charles Evans Cemetery.

Cause of death - arteriosclerosis heart diease & general arteriosclerosis.

Born in Blandon, a daughter of Henry and Sallie (Kerchoff) Lachman, Mrs Keffer was a member of St Stephan's Evangelical and Reformed Church.


Looper on full fashioned hoisery at Nolde and Horst Stocking factory mill at 9th & Douglas Sts, Reading, Pa.

Clara May Lachman was born Sept 29th, 1879, and was baptized Jan 24, 1880 AD by the Rev W.F.P Davis, Reformed Church, her parents being sponsors.

Cause of death: Arteroiscleric heart disease Children were:

i. Babe (Still-Born) Keffer^{(4) (1)(2) (3)} was born on 7 Apr 1904 in Reading, Pa. She died on 7 Apr 1904 in Reading, Pa. She was buried on 8 Apr 1904 in Reading, Pa (stillborn). ⁽⁴⁾
ii. William Henry Keffer^{(1) (2)(3)} was born on 10 Aug 1905 in 1031 Spring St, Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 7 Nov 1905 in 1351 North 11th St, Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He died on 3 Oct 1996 in Reading, Pa. He was buried on 8 Oct 1996 in Forest Hills Memorial Park, Reading, Pa.

Obituary
Born at 1031 Spring Street, Reading, Pa.

Lived as child at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading Pa
Veteran World War II - U.S.Army - A.S.N 6841608
Occupation: Carpenter - Laborer - Draftsman

Married March 30,1946 by Rev Morris D. Slifer of St. Stephens Reformed Church, Reading, Pa.

William H. Keffer, 91, died Thursday afternoon in his residence at 1017 Windsor St.
He was the husband of Leona S. (Becker) Keffer.
Born in Reading, he was the son of the late Charles M. and Clara M. (Lachman) Keffer.
Keffer was employed for 10 years as tube inspector by the Readi-Fin Manufacturing Co., a former division of Reading Tube Corp., Ontelaunee Township, retiring in 1968.
He was a member of St. Stephen's United Church of Christ, Reading.
Keffer was a former president and historian of Gregg Post 12, American Legion.
He was an Army veteran of World War II.
Keffer is also survived by a daughter, Susan D. Keffer, at home
Other survivors include two brothers, Donald L., Reading, and Rodney S., Laureldale.
Services will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Whelan, Fleischmann & Schwartz Funeral Homes Inc., Exeter Township. Burial will be in Forest Hills Memorial Park, Reifton.

William served in the Army in Hawaii prior to World War II.
He was called up by the reserves during World War II and served in Petersburg, Va.
as a postmaster.

William's widow (Leona) and his daughter (Susan) have the family Bible of their father
(William S. Keffer) which contains pictures (circa 1850) of William S. Keffer's parents and William S Keffer's wife and her parents.

Letter from Leona, his wife, on June 2, 1997 provides details for his interests and hobbies.
His hobbies were watercolor painting of Indian scenes and woodcarving. He went though grade school and Reading Boys High School. He worked at Wilson's where they made glasses and sunglasses. He worked for construction company after High School, which contructed NorthEast Junior High School. After that he worked at Doeler's in Pottstown where they manufactured different steel products. After Doeler's closed down, he worked at Reddi-Fin, a subsidiary of Reading Tube. He retired from there. William and Leona used to go to the Haag Post for supper and dancing. One night they got up to dance and Bill could not slide his feet. They sat down and looked at his feet and discovered that he still had his rubbers on his shoes, which prevented them from sliding. Bill and brother Chet used to go hiking up to Hampden Park and the surrounding area. He belonged to the American Legion Post near his home. Bill would clean the Post every day without any compensation because he was retired and it gave him something to do. Bill and his daughter Susan used to camp under the dining room table. Susan had a little blanket made by Leona, which she kept rolled up when not in use. On Sunday's, Bill, Leona and Susan would often hike and carry along their supper to Hampden Park, and walk around the park, then eat the supper in the park.


iii. Russell Charles Keffer^{(4) (1)(2) (3)} was born on 24 Aug 1906 in Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 2 Jan 1907 in St Thomas Reformed Church, Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ By Rev John Ph. Stein He died on 11 Mar 1990 in Reading, Pa. He was buried on 11 Mar 1990 in Forest Hills (Reifton) Reading, Pa.

Obituary
Russell C. Keffer


Russell C. Keffer, 83, of 565 Freidensburg Road, Pennside, died Sunday morning at 3 in Reading Hospital, where he had been a patient since Thursday. He was the husband of Elizabeth S. (Smith) Carl-Keffer. Born in Reading, he was a son of the late Charles and Mae (Lachman) Keffer. An Army veteran of World War II, he had been employed as a bench worker by Rockwell International Corp. for 30 years, retiring in 1972. In addition to his wife, he survived by a stepson, William T. Carl, Wernersville, and two stepdaughters, Margaret A., wife of Christian Daniels, Whitfield, and Elizabeth Ann, wife of Robert Shuman, Pennside. Also nine stepgrandchildren, seven stepgreat-grandchildren, and four brothers: William, Reading; Leonard, Crestwood; Donald, Corwall Terrace; and Rodney, Mohnton. Lutz Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Baptized by Rev. John P.H. Stein of St. Thomas Reformed Church.
Lived as child at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading Pa
Occupation - Knitter & Machinist

Veteran World War II - 6th Armored Infantry.
During World War II, he was struck twice with shrapnel from German artillery being fired
down the autobahn. He was hit in the leg and shoulder.

Russell won a dog (Blackie) at a carnival and gave it to his brother Donald's son Allen.

iv. Leonard Allen Keffer^{(4) (1)(2) (3)} was born on 14 Aug 1908 in 1203 North 10th St., Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 11 Jan 1909 in St Thomas Reformed Church, Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He died on 21 Jan 1992 in Pottstown, Pa.

Obituary
Leonard A. Keffer

Leonard A. Keffer, 83, died Tuesday at 5 p.m. of natural causes in his residence at 4000 Crestline Drive, Crestwood. He was the husband of Elva (Field) Keffer. Born in Reading, he was a son of the late Charles M. and Clara M. (Lockman) Keffer. Keffer was employed as a diemaker by Doehler-Jarvis Farley Industries Inc., Stowe, for 36 years before retiring in 1969. He was a past president of UAWCIO Local 1056, Stowe. He was member of Trinity United Church of Christ, Pottstown. He was member of Pottstown borough council from 1950 to 1958. Other survivors include a daughter, Judith D., wife of Barry Smith, Mohnton, and three brothers: William H. and Donald L., both of Reading, and Rodney S., Mohnton. There are also three grandchildren He was predeceased by a daughter, Marilyn Gilbert. Lutz Funeral Home Inc., Mount Penn, is in charge of arrangements.


Lived as child at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading Pa

Occupation - Toolmaker

Doehler-Jarvis manufactured 20-millimeter shells during World War II.

Baptized January 11, 1909 by Asst. Pastor Lee M Erdman of St Thomas Reformed Church.

v. Chester Ralph Keffer^{(4) (1)(2) (3)} was born on 19 Jan 1911 in 1203 North 10th St., Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 2 Jul 1911 in Grace Alsace Reformed Church, Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He died on 21 Feb 1986 in 418 Linden St, Reading, Pa. He was buried on 25 Feb 1986 in Forest Hills (Reifton) Reading, Pa.

Obituary
Chester R. Keffer

Chester R. Keffer, 75, of 418 Linden St., died Friday night at 7:40 in St. Joseph Hospital, where he was a patient since Monday.
He was the husband of Mildred (Christ) Keffer.
Born in Reading, he was the son of the late Charles M. and Clara Mae (Lachman) Keffer.
Keffer was employed for 19 years as a wholesale route salesman by Maier's Bakery and for 9 years in the janitorial department of Luden's Inc., before retiring in 1975.
In addition to his widow, he is survived by a daughter, Beverly A. Keffer, at home; a son, Rodney R. of Crestwood, and a granddaughter.
Also five brothers: William of Reading; Russell of Pennside; Leonard of Crestwood; Rodney S. of Mohnton; and Donald L. of Cornwall Terrace.
The Bean Funeral Home Inc., Reading, is in charge of arrangements.



Baptized July 2, 1911 by Rev. Elam J. Snyder of Grace Alsace Reformed Church.
Lived as child at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading Pa

Occupation - Butcher

Also worked as a watchman after retiring from Luden's.


As a child, he fell off a porch and severely injured his elbow, which could not be correctly
reset. As a result of that accident, he had a deformed elbow and was rejected from
serving in World War II.

He liked to joke around and has been compared to the late Art Carney (comedian), the notorious straight man. He was an avid hunter and fisherman.

2 vi. Donald Lachman Keffer.
vii. Melvin Francis Keffer^{(4) (1)(2) (3)} was born on 13 Jun 1914 in 1203 North 10th St., Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 18 Oct 1914 in St Thomas Reformed Church, Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He died on 3 Jul 1915 in Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He was buried on 9 Jul 1915 in Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾

The funeral of Melvin Francis Keffer, son of Charles M. and Clara Mae Keffer, was held from the residence of the parents, 1203 North Tenth Street. The remains were attired in a white silk dress and rested in a square cornered, white, broadcloth covered casket with silver extension handles, silver trimmings and plate bearing name and age. Rev Lee M. Erdman.
Four brothers William, Russel, Leonard and Chester acted as bearers. Undertaker Seidel had charge.

Died from unpasturized milk posioning
viii. Rodney Sturgis Keffer^{(1) (2)(3)} was born on 24 Jul 1918 in 1203 North 10th St., Reading, Pa.⁽⁴⁾ He was christened on 9 Apr 1919 in St Thomas Reformed Church, Reading, Pa. ⁽⁴⁾ He died on 25 Aug 2000 in Reading, Pa. Officals probing shooting death


Laureldale police and the Berks County coroner's office are investigating the shooting death of a man Wednesday night in a Laureldale residence.

Rodney S. Keffer, 82, was pronounced dead at the scene inside his residence at 3523 Chest St. at 6:30 p.m. of agunshot wound to the head, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Michael F. Feeney

The wound appears to have been self inflicted, Feeney added. Investigators recovered a gun from the residence, he said.

No death certificate has been issued. An autopsy is scheduled for today.






Occupation - Machinist
Lived as child at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading, Pa

During World War II, Rodney served as a Physical Instructor in Miami, Florida

Traveled to New Zealand in 1991 with a ski club group with one night stopover in Tahiti and 3 days in Hawaii.

Journal of quotes from Rodney:
Life began a few years ago - at 1203 North 10th Street, Reading, Pa., July 24,1918 about 9:15AM, soon I became accustomed to home life.

My first remembrance of being in the limelight was my first stage appearance at three and a half years of age, for a Pearl Haines stage Revue. Not a very earth shaking experience. A few years later, I was teamed with a young lady, without much success. She soon took sick and passed on, having contacted Diphtheria. A few years after that experience I was cast in another team project - but it was short lived. The lady didn't enjoy it, so she quit.
Years passed, I did continue with dance lessons and shows which became a regular event every year.
In my search for better routines and better instruction I moved to another dance studio, Bonnie Brownell by name
In the Bonnie Brownell Studio I was teamed up with my first male dancer. We got along pretty well, but it didn't last for long. He left me for another partner - and they did click for a few years. They performed in a few big shows in and around Reading.
Soon I made another big change - Behney Studio. This for me was a big change. They had a big road show and I fit in pretty good. In the summer they played a total of some 11 fair engagements and in the winter - club jobs, theatres, and hotel banquets and parties. I was also in the Penn Wheelman shows with my brothers, Donald and Bill.
School was not to be finished. It was not on the list of things to do. I left Reading High in 11th grade and sorry to say never finished that part of life.
The next major event in life was World War II - I became part of it - but not any action. I was stationed in Miami Beach, Florida in the Air Corps. I was classified as permanently disabled (acute hearing deficiency) and assigned as Physical Instructor till my date of discharge, Aug 17, 1943.
While in Miami Beach I was lucky to be in a short subject by Grandland Rice titled "Tumble Boy". This was in the Embassy Theatre while featuring the movie "Reveille with Beverly" with Ann Miller and Frank Sinatra.
After the service, I came home - married Arlene from the Wolf and Adams Studio line of Holiday Dancers. She bore me a son Martin; the marriage lasted a short time. Then life went on - to the next chapter. Another marriage to Helen Reed and I adopted her son Kerry. She was unhappy with the marriage, got a divorce and has since passed away
In the next chapter I was married again, to June Wunder - lived in Northmont for 10 years. She took sick and passed away - cancer. While in Northmont I was involved in several civic opera shows at the Rajah Temple. Brother Donald was in several of the Penn Wheelman shows as well as brother William.
After a long intermission, finally made a last move, got married to a lovely lady Pauline, this must be the final approach to the last stand! This must last till my time runs out.



Rodney S. Keffer

Rodney S. Keffer ,82, of 3524 Chestnut St., Laureldale, was certified dead in the garage of his residence Wednesday night.
A certificate of suicide was issued Thursday fro Keffer, who died of a self -inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to Michael F. Feeney, Berks County chief deputy coroner.
Keffer was the husband of Pauline A. (Raber) Haynes Keffer.
Born in Reading, he was the son of the late Charles M. and Clara M. (Lachman) Keffer.
He was employed fro 30 years as a tool and die maker by Doehler-Jarvis Corp., Stowe, Montgomery County, retiring in 1980.
Keffer was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II.
He is also survived by a son, Martin, Tempe, Arizona; and two stepsons: Charles F. Hayes, Manahawkin, N.J., and Henry D. Haynes, Montgomery, Alabama.
Other survivors include a brother, Donald L., Jeffersonville.
There are also two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren.
Keffer was predeceased by a step-son, Kerry R. Keffer.
Graveside services will be in Forest Hills Memorial Park, Reiffton, at the conveniece of the family. Bean Funeral Homes & Cremation Services Inc., Reading is in charge of arrangements.