Irene “Renee” Winkler McCarthy
Irene “Renee” Winkler McCarthy did not suffer fools, unless they showed up in a Camden courtroom.
Whether murderers, mobsters, cop killers or swindlers, the long-time courts and criminal justice reporter for the Courier Post in Cherry Hill wrote about dark hearts and brazen crimes.
Thousands of them.
The Camden County resident’s byline was on top of stories about mob leader Nicky Scarfo’s request for early release because prison aggravated his allergies, Rabbi Fred Neulander’s scheme to have his wife killed, a man who shot his girlfriend while she dressed for church, and a teacher caught with explosives she claimed would protect her from Army intelligence officers.
“She had a love for the news,” said her friend of 63 years, Arlene Notoro Morgan, an assistant dean at Temple University who met Renee there in the ‘60s. “It was not unusual for her to have three or four bylines a day.
“No matter how gruesome the crime, she covered it.”
According to some Facebook tributes, Renee was both a serious journalist and generous colleague with a sense of fun. After a tough day – and often before she sat down to write – she would chat up colleagues, lean casually on someone’s work space and relay an especially ugly crime, then plan an after-work drink.
She took the stories she covered in stride; They rarely got her down.
But Renee – who died last month at 81 – was also a ferocious competitor, determined to beat other journalists into print. A reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer once told Morgan of Renee, “I could never beat her. She knew everybody.”
“She had the best court sources,” recalled Phil Wajda, Renee’s one-time editor, on Facebook. “She was respected by every judge, attorney and court transcriber.”
Outside of the murder and mayhem, Renee explored the lighter side of life, writing about the best way to eat crabs and a primer on why even the most fashionable shoes could be a pain.
“Blisters, bunions, hammer toes,” she wrote. “Those near-stiletto heels you must own this fall can have effects long after the designer price is absorbed by your checking account.”
Renee had a tough shell, but a candy-soft center. Morgan recalled how the former Philadelphia resident would join her on walks around their city neighborhood, their children in strollers, and the countless hours their families spent together.
“She went on camping trips with us,” noted Morgan, who can’t quite believe her friend is gone. “She was with us every Christmas Eve. She was like an aunt to my children and grandchildren. They are beside themselves right now.”
A precocious flea marketer, Renee had “hands of gold” to rehab her finds,” Morgan says, turning them into drapes, table covers and clothes. She kept a second home in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, where she shopped for antiques and entertained friends, convincing at least one that cross-country skiing is easy because there are no hills.
Morgan was struck after Renee died at the stuff she had crammed into the apartment where she moved after retiring. It was overwhelming, but orderly.
“All I could think,” Morgan notes, was, ‘Renee, what were you going to do with all these dishes?”
When she took her leave of the Courier Post in 2008, Renee slapped a note on her computer terminal with her email and the number 30, to signal, in journalistic parlance, the end of a story – in her case, a career.
But that’s not the last word. Renee’s instructions were firm: Cremate me. No ceremony. Have a great lunch with an open bar.
Friends and co-workers will do just that at 12:30 on Oct. 4 at Kaminsky’s in Cherry Hill, to honor “a great reporter and terrific person,” another Facebook post read.
“Newspapers can be a bitchy place,” Wajda observed, “but I never saw that side of Renee. Because there wasn’t one.”
Sources: Bradley Funeral Home, Facebook, Newspapers.com
Daniel “Dan” E. Miller
Anyone who did business with Kenmac Flowers in Collingswood likely knew owner Daniel “Dan” Miller was a board of education member, a soccer coach and a Little League baseball umpire.
What they might not have known was that he helped bury a president. As part of his proud service in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves, Dan was an honor guard at the funeral of John F. Kennedy on the gray day in November of 1963 when the slain president was laid to rest.
Dan carried that memory for the rest of his life, according to the obituary for the 83-year-old, who died on his birthday last month.
Dan spent decades giving back to the town where he lived, including 30 years on the Oaklyn school board, resolutely making sure the district’s grounds were well-kept and the baseball fields immaculate, according to his son Robert.
He coached and umpired the sport for years, a longevity that earned him induction into the Collingswood Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Dan also insisted the school district start a swim program and make it part of the curriculum at Oakland Public School, where he served as a vice principal.
“He thought no kid should lose his life because he couldn’t swim,” Robert recounted. ” … No kid that went through that school came out not knowing how.”
At his floral shop, the life-long Camden County resident built lasting connections with a lighthearted touch. He decorated the front window at Haddon and Collings avenues for every holiday and season and included the married mannequins Emmett and Beulah, who were once “kidnapped” as a prank.
In her lengthy eulogy for Dan – or “Poppy,” as she called him – granddaughter Katie Morgan remembered his jokes, including one acknowledged by all as a dud: “Do you know when a florist’s joke becomes a dad joke? When it’s full groan.”
“He always had some joke, and it was almost always terrible,” Katie told mourners. “And that wasn’t
always the joke’s fault. He had a habit of messing up the punchline so bad, it didn’t even make sense.”
At Kenmac, Robert remembered of his dad, “he never turned someone down for a job” – sometimes to his detriment.
“He hired too many people and paid them too much, because he just wanted to help,” Robert said. “But what made him a terrible businessman, made him a great guy and boss … He wanted to give everybody the same opportunities as he was given.”
“To call him generous doesn’t even really explain it,” Katie recalled of her grandfather, who always kept a pen, handkerchief and some spare change in his pocket. But what he gave of himself was priceless.
“He spent a whole life just giving it all away,” Katie recalled, “his time, his attention, his money.”
While there wasn’t an abundance of that money, she added, Dan “gave his family the richest life.”
“My dad only wanted his children happy,” noted one of his four offspring, Denise Powell, in her online tribute, “and ALWAYS was there to lend a hand, give his time.”
One of the ways Dan did that was to bring his work home with him – literally. Katie recalled the Kenmac van regularly appearing at the owner’s house.
“His whole life was spent considering how to make an occasion special,” she noted. “And he was good at it. … There were flowers for Mother’s Day, and Easter and Christmas – and sometimes just because your report card was pretty good.
“Maybe it seems obvious that the flower shop owner would send flowers, but it was really special to be surrounded by that kind of beauty all the time,” Katie added. “And I miss it.”
Dan Miller also comforted others in one of the best ways he knew how – with flowers.
“He did the flowers for our father’s funeral,” recalled Karla McCoy online, “making a sad day a bit brighter with his touch.”
“His life was an incredibly valuable lesson in benevolence, and warmth, and service and living
in a way that feels abundant,” Katie observed. “He was just the biggest guy in the room. He had a big voice and a big presence.
“In another life, I always thought he could’ve been a celebrity.”
Sources: Foster-Warne Funeral Home, Legacy.com
The Good Life appears twice a month. To suggest someone who recently passed away for a tribute, email Christina Mitchell at cmitchell@donnelly.media. Please describe in a few words something about the person’s life.
