Fire co. salutes late auxiliary president
Gladys Wickham was dedicated volunteer for years in Jackson
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

DAVE BENJAMIN A casket carrying the body of Gladys Wickham is accorded the honor of being carried on a Cassville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 truck during her funeral on April 12. Wickham (r) was a former president of the Cassville Fire Company's Ladies Auxiliary. She died on April 6 at the age of 75.

A past president of Jackson's Cassville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 Ladies Auxiliary who died on April 6 received the fire company's highest honor last week.

A procession led by a Cassville fire truck carrying the casket of Gladys Wickham, 75, made its way from the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals on Brewers Bridge Road, Jackson, to the Cassville Cemetery in the township's Cassville section on the afternoon of April 12.

Cassville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 President Doug Velting said, "We have gathered to honor past auxiliary president Gladys Wickham, wife of life member Kenneth Wickham and mother of life member and Commissioner Keith Wickham Sr. The Wickham family name has been involved with the department for many decades and we have gathered to honor as such ..."

"Everything went so very smooth with the fire company, the police department and everything else," said Kenneth Wickham, reflecting on the service and the honor of riding on top of the fire truck. "There isn't a person I think who could say they had a better send-off."

The honor accorded to Wickham by the fire company was a final salute to a woman who had been involved in the Jackson community for many years.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Nicolasa and Francisco Maldo-nado, Wickham was raised in Brooklyn, moved to Hazlet and to various locations around the world before settling in Jackson in the late 1950s.

"I met Gladys by accident," said her husband, who was a parachutist in the 101st Airborne Division at the time. "I was home on a furlough and as a young man with my yellow Pontiac convertible, my friend, my brother and I were driving to Union Beach. In those days, that was the place."

Wickham said there were two young ladies walking along the sidewalk.

"We said 'hi' and they said 'hi' back," he recalled. "We asked if they had another friend and they said they knew a girl in Hazlet."

Wickham said Gladys was about 17 when he asked her to marry him, and she accepted his proposal.

After living in Newark with family, the Wickhams moved to Jackson in 1958. He said his wife joined the fire company auxiliary and became friends with Elsie Sloan.

"Together they would go out and get donations," Wickham said. "Gladys served in several positions and became president for three years. They would go out and get donations for the auctions, hold cake sales and everything else."

Wickham recalled one of the finest moments his wife had in the ladies auxiliary.

"That was when they had an oyster and ham supper before the November election," he said. "It was held at Rova Farms [in Cass-ville]. The event was attended by all the politicians from Ocean County."

At that time it was one of the outstanding affairs in Jackson, her husband said.

"The ladies auxiliary was her girls," Wickham said. "If there was a fire at 1 a.m., she would call the girls and say we have to get down to the firehouse and make some hot coffee for the men. But they wouldn't let Gladys make the coffee. The first time she made the coffee it could have burned a hole through the coffee pot. That was the joke in the firehouse: don't let Gladys make the coffee."

In 1963 there was a big forest fire in Jackson on the same night the ladies auxiliary was going to have a roast beef dinner, a money maker, he said.

"They took all the roast beef and everything else and put it on the stove," he said. "Every volunteer in Jackson and those that came in had a hot meal waiting at the firehouse."

Over the years Wickham was employed by RCA, Westinghouse and Paco Manufacturing. She retired in 1997 from her husband's construction business, A-All-In-One Services.

Wickham will be remembered for her service as president of the Cassville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 Ladies Auxiliary and the AMVETS Post 2 Ladies Auxiliary. She was a den mother for Jackson Cub Scout Pack 28 and a member of the Jackson and New Jersey Jayceettes who visited hospital patients.

"She was also known as the adopted mother and our house always had six or more boys other than my three sons," Wickham said. "Gladys always said she would rather have all of them in our house and that way she would know where her son was."

Hundreds and friends from Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Florida, and other locations came to Jackson to attend Wickham's funeral.

Wickham was also a member of the Cassville Methodist Church.

"She had her hands full," her husband said. "She raised three boys. She was my office manager and she found time to help the town. She worked with the PTA."

Wickham was predeceased by two sisters, Ramona and Jeanette. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Kenneth G. Wickham Sr.; three sons and two daughters-in-law, Kenneth Jr. and Jan Wickham, Keith Wickham, and Kevin and Susan Wickham.

Also surviving are a sister, Frances, of Freehold, and a brother, Robert, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; seven grandchildren, along with two of their spouses; six great-grandchildren, with a seventh on the way, and numerous nieces and nephews.