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STAFF SERGEANT EDWARD J.
HIGGINS was born in Pennsylvania in 1916 to Joseph and Maria R. Higgins.
The family bought a home at 333 Cattell Avenue in Collingswood NJ in
1929. Besides Edward, the oldest son, there were brothers Frank and
Joseph Jr., and sisters Mary, Claire, and Theresa. Maria R. Higgins
passed away in 1936.
A member of the 1937 class of
Collingswood (NJ) High School, Edward Higgins had enlisted in the army in October of
1940, and had served for a year before being honorably discharged with
the rank of Sergeant a year later. In October of 1944, he was drafted
back into the Army. He reported on November 12, 1944 and after brief stays at Camp Shelby MS, Fort Sill
OK, and Camp Carson CO, was sent overseas a month later. He was wounded
in action in Belgium, and received the Purple Heart. He died as a result
of wounds on March 2, 1945 in Germany.
Edward Higgins had been a member of St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic
Church in Camden NJ, where a Mass was said for him when word reached
home of his death. His body was returned to the United States after the
war, and he was buried at New St. Mary's Cemetery in Bellmawr NJ on
November 22, 1947, next to his mother, sister Mrs. Theresa Hanson, who
had died the previous year, and sister mrs. Claire McKee, who passed in
1945. Edward Higgins was survived by his father, Joseph M.
Higgins, of the Cattell Avenue address, brothers Joseph Jr. and Francis
E. Higgins, and sisters Mrs. Mary Duffy.
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