wagner family scrapbook

He Loved Levittown

Richard L Wagner
1920-2009
Richard L (Pop-Pop) Wagner of Levittown passed peacefully at the age of 88 on April 26, 2009 at Langhorne Gardens. Born to German immigrants Adolph and Lydia (Heydegger) Wagner and raised in South Philadelphia, he was a US Navy Veteran of WWII, a career machinist, a master glassblower, and a proud, original Levittowner. Pop-Pop provided much of the content for this website because he wanted to preserve the heritage of our hometown which he loved so much. He had a lifelong interest in physical fitness and was still ballroom dancing at the age of 80. He also loved coaching and supporting local swimming and wrestling programs.

He is predeceased by his loving wife Gertrude Elisabeth (Kuehner) Wagner who passed in 1986. Pop-Pop will be truly missed by his only son Richard G Wagner and his wife Amy (Duckett) Wagner and his only grandson Jackson Wagner, as well as by his second wife Florence Kennedy Wagner of Levittown, whose love and companionship blessed his twilight years.

Select the "wagner family scrapbook" link above to learn more about Pop-Pop's life.

wagner family scrapbook

My parents, Dick & Betty Wagner, moved out of a row house in Northeast Philly in 1957 in search of the American dream of owing their own single family home with a yard. They found it 30 minutes away in Levittown, PA.

Wedding Day 1945 (Wagner photo)

Dad was a Navy Vet and a Machinist by trade. My mother was a homemaker and later a substitute teacher. They were unusual in 1957 in that they were a double income couple with no kids yet. This enabled them to buy the "top of the line" Levitt house; a Country Clubber in the Snowball Gate section. Within a year of moving in my mother became pregnant and I was born in 1959 at Lower Bucks Hospital.

I grew up in Snowball Gate during what could be called the "golden age" of Levittown. When it was still new and there were kids everywhere. We rarely left Levittown for any further away than the Jersey Shore until I went away to college. I think it is fair to say that Levittown was my whole world for my first 18 years.

Here is the Gallery of the Wagner's Levittown (click to see larger image)