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TECHNICIAN FOURTH CLASS LESTER J. DYER was born in New Jersey in 1920, the seventh child of Alma and John Lester Dyer. In 1930, John was a city fireman in Camden NJ, and Alma, with four more at home after Lester, was very busy. The family lived in a home they owned at 1126 Lawrence Street, which is no longer standing, demolished to make room for the superhighway at the approach to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The family moved again, and was living at 139 North 11th Street in 1936. Sadly, John Lester Dyer, who had retired on a fire department pension, passed away on March 22, 1938. Lester Dyer graduated from Camden Catholic High School in Camden NJ, and worked for the Kieckhefer Container Company in the Delair section of Pennsauken NJ. Lester Dyer was drafted into the Army, and with several other men from his North Camden neighborhood, was assigned to the 83rd Chemical Battalion, Motorized. After seeing duty in North Africa and Sicily. the 83rd took part in the landings at Anzio. On January 26, 1944 the LST that Lester Dyer and his comrades were on was sunk by enemy action. In the rough seas, many men were lost, including Lester Dyer, James Parks, and William Phenegar, all from North Camden, also lost were Arthur Sinclair and Salvatore Sapio of Haddonfield, and Stanley Pokorsky of Delaware Township (Cherry Hill). Lester Dyer was survived by his mother, then living at 819 Penn Street in Camden NJ, brothers John, Benjamin, Harold, and Frank; and his sisters Esther, Alma, Ida, Grace, Pauline, and Gardenia. His brothers Benjamin, John, and Harold were all serving in the army at the time. Another brother, George Dyer, had passed while a teenager in October of 1936. The death of Lester Dyer was reported in the March 16, 1944 evening edition of the Camden Courier-Post. |
