Remembering lives taken by COVID-19

Here are some of the victims' stories

• Russ Walker
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Russ Walker joined PA Post in 2019 as executive editor. He previously worked at KING 5 News, the NBC-affiliated TV station serving Seattle and Western Washington. At KING, Russ oversaw the award-winning investigative unit and managed the newsroom’s daily operations. His background includes stints as an editor for POLITICO, washingtonpost.com, FreedomChannel.com, American Health Line and U.N. Wire. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. Russ and his wife, journalist and cookbook author Kim O’Donnel, live in Lancaster.

 Courtesy Office of Gov. Wolf

The Pennsylvania state flag flies at half staff over the capitol building in Harrisburg on April 7, 2020, to honor the victims of the coronavirus outbreak.

Courtesy Office of Gov. Wolf

The Pennsylvania state flag flies at half staff over the capitol building in Harrisburg on April 7, 2020, to honor the victims of the coronavirus outbreak.

As of Friday, 756 Pennsylvanians had died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Nationwide, more than 25,000 have died. The coronavirus’s heaviest toll is among the elderly, but people of all ages have passed away from complications of COVID-19.

Over the past month, I’ve been collecting news stories and obituaries about some of the victims. For this Saturday edition of The Context, I thought I’d share links to some of the tributes:

• Enock Benjamin: The “70-year-old Haitian immigrant who lived in Northeast Philadelphia, worked at a beef processing plant in Souderton run by JBS, the largest meat producer in the world. As of last week, at least 17 of his coworkers had tested positive, according to the union that represents them. Almost 1,400 people work across two facilities in Souderton.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13)

• Stephen Chatman: The founding host of WYEP’s “The Soul Show.” The show’s current host, Michael Canton, said “one of the greatest lessons he learned from Chatman was the importance of knowing everything about each song they played on the show, so they could talk about it extemporaneously. Chatman had a habit of weaving the history of the music into the timeline of his own life, Canton said. He would tell listeners where he was when a song first came out, who he was dating at the time, who he danced to it with.” (TribLive, March 30) Chatman also left his mark in Erie, where he was coordinator of the city’s weed and seed program (Times-News, April 13)

• Thomas Henry Davis: “Hank was drafted into the U.S. Army immediately after high school graduation and served with the Allied Occupation forces in northern Italy, guarding the Italian-Yugoslavian border (occasionally even on horseback or skis). He was recruited to play football for the 351st division’s team, ‘The Spearheaders.’ After his discharge, Hank moved to Lancaster to work at Armstrong Industries, where he was employed for forty years, retiring in 1989.” (LNP, April 8)

• Tom Dempsey: The former kicker for the Philadelphia Eagles, who was born without toes on his right foot, died last Saturday in New Orleans. “Mr. Dempsey, who also was born without four fingers on his right hand, began his pro career with the Saints in 1969 but the team released him after he struggled in the 1971 preseason. The Eagles acquired him later that season and he remained in Philadelphia through 1974. He set what was then a single-season team record for most field goals, 24, in 1973, a year after kicking six in an 18-17 win over Houston, still a club mark for most in one game.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 5)

• Christian Dutan: “To his group of friends, Christian Dutan was the life of the party who could bring a smile to anyone’s face, the funny man who cracked jokes to cut through any tense situation. Even after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, the 30-year-old Allentown man tried to lighten the mood by posting encouraging messages and funny memes to his Facebook page.” (The Morning Call, April 13)

• Eugene Frank: “Even as he aged into his late 80s, Eugene Frank seemed healthy, someone largely devoid of the fragility that often comes with the late stage of life. Mr. Frank was, as those closest to him saw it, fit. He still walked. He didn’t use a wheelchair and, along with his grandson, lived in his own home in New Castle. He would take drives around town. He would even have the occasional cigar and glass of wine with dinner. He enjoyed much of what life still offered him, until he no longer could.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 2)

• Carmine Fusco: The first Pennsylvanian to die of COVID-19 was a Northampton County man who worked with standardbred horses. He was also part of a larger New Jersey family that was devastated by the coronavirus, as documented in this story from The New York Times: Coronavirus Ravages 7 Members of a Single Family, Killing 4 (The Morning Call, March 19)

• Frank Gabrin: The Fayette County native “worked at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey and is believed to be the first emergency room physician in the United States to have died from coronavirus, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. Being a caretaker was the ‘center of who he was,’ according to his brother Michael Gabrin, 56, of Shadyside. Like many healthcare workers, doctors and nurses in recent weeks across the world, Dr. Gabrin worked extra shifts during a time when hospitals are reeling.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 6)

• Ralph W. Genello: “The first Lackawanna County resident to die of the coronavirus was a ‘caring and giving’ South Scranton man who enjoyed gambling, talking about world events and watching sports.” (Times-Tribune, March 26)

• Douglas Linn Hickok: The Bangor resident became the first U.S. serviceman to die from COVID-19. “‘He loved food and dining and barbecue,’ said his daughter, Shandrea Hickok of Red Bank, New Jersey, remembering her father as a fiercely patriotic man who served his country out of gratitude for its blessings and showered all the affection in the world on Shandrea and her brother, Noah.” (The Morning Call, March 31)

• Rick Johnson: The assistant chief of Tullytown Fire Company Station 33 was just 50 years old. The 27-year-veteran of the Tullytown fire department died after spending a week in the hospital. (NBC Philadelphia, April 4)

• Liborio Lara: The “proud Reading native [was] a Reading High grad who sported a tattoo of the city’s 610 area code on his left forearm. He was a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan. He was a guy who loved music and going to comedy clubs.” He was also a diabetic, which may have made this 30-year-old more vulnerable to the disease. (Reading Eagle, April 14).

• Ying Kao Lee: “Car buffs may not know the name Ying Kao Lee, but it was he who kept many of their cars shiny. During 35 years with the DuPont Co., Dr. Lee invented Lucite dispersion lacquer, the substance in car paint that prevents fading. By doing so, he reduced emissions in the painting process by 70% and set the pattern for automotive top-coat finishing for two decades, ending in the 1990s.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 15)

• Bradley and Rebecca Lender: The York County couple, married for nearly 34 years, passed away within just a few days of each other. “But they weren’t statistics. They were living, loving human beings, as evidenced by their daughter’s tribute to their lives.” (York Daily Record, April 15)

• Wilhelmina Wetzler “Willy” Peluso: She was born in the Netherlands and married an American GI and moved back to the U.S. to spend her life with him. “Willy raised her five children in the times of cloth diapers and wringer washing machines. She spent times as her family’s advocate, a sewing teacher, president of the Emsworth Fireman’s Auxiliary, Emsworth Judge of Elections, dog walker, pre-school teacher, babysitter, seamstress, knitter and crocheter, sole care-taker for her ill husband, family and friend advisor, and she often held court on her massive front porch.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 13)

• William “Bill” Slater: The first Butler County resident to succumb to COVID-19, “Many …  knew Mr. Slater through his 50 years of judging rodeos throughout Washington and Concord Townships and beyond. For years, he served as a member and elite judge of several rodeo associations, including the American Professional Rodeo Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 30)

• Rudolph Sutton: “On Saturday, Rudolph Sutton’s son said he got news he had waited 30 years to hear: Philadelphia prosecutors would review his father’s claim that he’d been wrongfully imprisoned for a 1988 murder in South Philadelphia. But the son had news of his own for the defense lawyers on the other end of the line: Sutton, 67, had died three days earlier, the first state prison inmate to succumb to the coronavirus.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, April 15)

• Devin Taquino: “Rebecca Taquino took her sick husband to Mon Valley Hospital and never saw him again because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband, Devin Taquino, 47, died from the coronavirus three weeks later in a Pittsburgh hospital, becoming the first coronavirus victim Friday in Washington County, the mayor of Donora said.” (Observer-Reporter, April 14)

• James Walker: The Philadelphia Police Department veteran was the first city employee to die of the virus. “He loved his job, and he refused to let this virus stop him from doing this job,” said his wife, Vita Walker. (6ABC, April 7).

• Carl Weidner: A passenger on the ill-fated Grand Princess cruise ship, Weidner was one of the many Americans who went into quarantine after returning from sea. In his case, it was at Travis Air Force Base, where he “came down with a fever and was taken to a California hospital March 11, his niece said. He found out he was positive for COVID-19 on March 13, was put on a ventilator March 16 and died March 26 without friends or family nearby.” (The Morning Call, April 2)

• Gerald Welch: The Harrisburg School Board member “lived to help others. So when the novel coronavirus hit Pennsylvania, he continued visiting and serving his clients as a behavioral outreach social worker. He knew clients, many of them autistic, were counting on him, so he continued providing support, including rides to work and to the grocery store.” (PennLive, April 15)  See also: Harrisburg school board director, education reformer dies from COVID-19 (The Burg, April 15)

There are also some lovely collections of COVID-19 obituaries and remembrances from national and local media:

• The Morning Call: Remembering those lost to coronavirus from the Lehigh Valley

• The New York Times: Those We’ve Lost

• ABC News: Remembering those who died

• The Guardian: The UK health workers who have died from Covid-19

If you have links to obituaries or news stories about other Pennsylvania victims of coronavirus, please share via our Listening Post.

Peace.