Joseph Richard TinnenyH98
Joseph R. Tinneny was the third son and fifth child of James J. Tinneny and Gertrude A. Spence. He was born in the family home at 4724 Fowler Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1917. Joe was baptized at Holy Family Church. He attended Holy Family Grade School on Hermitage Street.
While at Saint John’s he was a member of the school’s running team and also was a pole-vaulter. He also played an instrument in the school band and was a substitute on the football team. His brother Donald recalled that Joe would frequently throw his hip out of place while pole vaulting. Years later Joe attributed an enlarged heart to his long distance running in his youth. Like his father and several of his brother’s, Joe was an avid reader of books from an early age.
Following his graduation from Saint John’s High School, Joe found work as a salesman for SKF Ball Bearing Company in Philadelphia. Shortly before the involvement of the United States in World War II Joe was drafted into the United States Army Air Corps.
He was assigned to an Air Base in Jacksonville, Florida for basic training according to his brother Donald.
Following basic training he was assigned to the Army Air Corps’ medical service as a medic. On November 24 Joe’s brother John and his wife Helen had their first child Richard (me). They asked Joe and his sister Clare to serve as my godparents. The christening went off as scheduled on December 7th 1941. That evening, as the family was gathered for dinner and the christening celebration in the home of Joe’s parents on Pechin Street, when a message came over the radio for all military personnel to report to the nearest military installation. Subsequent announcements informed the Tinnenys gathered for the celebration and the rest of the nation of the bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese and our entry into World War II.
Joe left the gathering and reported as ordered. He soon found himself assigned as a medic with the 8th Air Force at Bury Saint Edmund, England. Bury Saint Edmund was an airfield on the eastern outskirts of the town of Rougham, England. It was the mission of the American and British forces assigned to that base to bomb the Axis forces and mainland Germany. There were approximately 3000 troops billeted in Nissan huts and other temporary buildings during his tour there. Joe served as a medic, with the 94th Bomb Group and later with the 322 Bomb Group which flew B-26 Marauders and arrived at the base in March 1943. He said that the bombing missions went on around the clock and that it was so intense that the sky would be black with the aircraft. As a medic, a major part of his job was to help recover injured and dead crewmen who returned to the base after the bombing raids.
Years later he would recall that he was constantly amazed at how damaged a plane could be and still fly. He said that many of the planes returned so shot up, with major parts shot away that they really shouldn’t have been able to remain airborne. Many of them crash-landed as they approached the airfield. He was similarly amazed at the degree of damage that the human body could take as evidenced by the devastation that he saw from the returning airmen who were his patients.
While in England, Joe rose to the rank of Technical Sergeant. On one occasion he was courts martialed for calling president Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Commander in Chief, a “son of a bitch.” Roosevelt was anathema in the Tinneny home in Philadelphia so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Joe like his father disliked him intensely. He apparently got into some sort of a discussion or argument in which he addressed Roosevelt’s lineage as described above. Since Roosevelt was also Commander in Chief of the armed forces it was a violation of military law to speak despairingly against him. The matter was brought to the attention of Joe’s commanding officer and Joe was brought before a military court. At the courts martial he was asked to retract the statement, which he refused to do. He then went one step further and restated the offending comment. For his actions he was reduced in grade. However, he soon got his stripes back and at the end of the war he was discharged as a Staff Sergeant.
While stationed in England, Joe had the opportunity to host his brother Bruce on several occasions. Bruce was in the Navy assigned as a gunner on the merchant ships that were engaged in what was called the Murmansk Run i.e. bringing supplies from America to the Russian City of Murmansk. On several occasions Bruce was given leave which he took in England visiting Joe. Normally medics are not permitted to carry weapons. During one of Bruce’s visits for some reason the medics in Joe’s unit had just been authorized to carry weapons. Joe, Bruce and some of their friends went into the town drinking and Joe had his weapon with him. The local population was scandalized when on their way back to the base Joe was shooting his gun.
On another occasion Bruce and some of his shipmates visited Joe for a couple of days they went out drinking one night at one of Joe’s favorite pubs. At some point during the evening Bruce and his buddies got into a brawl, which resulted in extensive damage to the pub. Joe was not happy about the incident.
Having served throughout the entire war, Joe returned to the United States aboard the Queen Mary arriving in New York Harbor September 28, 1945. From there he was assigned to Indiantown Gap
Extract from the personnel roster of the arriving troops aboard the Queen Mary.
After the war, Joe was discharged with the grade of staff sergeant and among his military decorations were seven battle stars representing the major battles that he had participated in during the European campaign. He returned to Philadelphia and lived with his parents.
He was given a job with Board of Revision of Taxes, working for the City of Philadelphia. When the City administration changed from Republican to Democrat in the early 1950s, Joe left his job with the City. Bob Hamilton, the local Republican ward leader, helped him get a job as a purchasing agent with the construction firm of Conduit and Foundation. In the 1950s Joe, an ardent conservative Republican, ran for two elective offices. One of these was for City Council for the 8th district. In that campaign he endorsed Republican Jim Clothier for Mayor of Philadelphia. Both were unsuccessful in their quest for public office during that political campaign.
Campaign card. Courtesy R. J. Tinneny
Joe also ran for a seat in the United States Congress in the 1950s. In that campaign he ran against Hugh Scott who had been a friend of his father’s and who his father had campaigned for years earlier. Among other family members and friends, Joe recruited his nephews, including myself, to help put out campaign literature. We attached many posters to poles throughout the neighborhood and gave out many little cards with his picture on them, which announced his candidacy. The cards were similar to this one used when he ran for a Philadelphia City Council seat.
Scott won the Congressional seat and went on to serve many years as the senior United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Had Uncle Joe won his plan was to have me accompany him to Washington D.C. to serve as his congressional page.
A mutual friend Frank Taylor at a Halloween party introduced Joe to his future wife Elizabeth “Betty” Smith. Although Joe didn’t know it, Betty had liked him from the time she was a young girl. Betty was born October 20, 1926.
Joe and Betty lived in an apartment at the top of Fountain Street when they were first married. They later bought a home at 1231 Woodside Road in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Joe died suddenly and unexpectedly of a massive heart attack in the living room of his home on Friday November 22, 1974. He had an appointment with his dentist that afternoon. He had been having a pain in his jaw. He came home from work prior to the appointment and took an Alka-Seltzer since he wasn’t feeling well. He got up from the chair in the living room and collapsed on the floor. Although the para-medics were summoned and quickly arrived Joe was pronounced dead on arrival at the local hospital. He was 57 years old. Joe was laid-out at the William P. Kohler Funeral home at Fowler and Hermitage Fountain Streets. After a Mass of Christian Burial at Saints Cosmas and Damian Church in Conshohocken he was buried in Calvary Cemetery also in Conshohocken.
After Joe’s death Betty sold the house in Conshohocken and moved to Fairthorne Street in Roxborough so she could be near her sister. Betty died of lung cancer on October 11, 1989. She was buried with Joe at Calvary Cemetery.
Note: no known descendants.
