Edward Gosha

“I made it this long by living a good clean life. I’ve never been in any trouble, no drinking, I worked hard.” Those were the reasons Ed Gosha (pronounced go-shay) gave for reaching the century mark in 1988. He should have mentioned his passion for basketball as well, since the special guests at his 100th birthday party were members of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. Shown here is Charles Barkley bringing him his birthday cake.

Officials with the Sixers organization first learned of Ed’s passion for the team the year before. They arranged for him to attend a game on his 99th birthday, complete with limousine transportation. That birthday tradition continued for the next four years.

He did indeed work hard and he worked long, a total of 62 years, starting at age 12 and retiring at 74. When he died 35 years later, it was just three weeks before his 109th birthday, making him the oldest man to be buried here. (The oldest woman in the cemetery, at age 114, was Elizabeth Brown Wilson.)

Ed was born and raised in rural Sumter County, Georgia, where cotton is still king and its most famous son was former President Jimmy Carter. The nearest town to his home was Leslie, Georgia, whose population today of 344 is less than it was more than a century ago.

That’s where he lived for his first 40 years. He dropped out of sixth grade to support his family, which included his four younger siblings. The 1910 census shows Ed and his new bride, Mary, had been married less than a year. Like everyone else on that page, he was a farm laborer. Another listing in Sumter County’s marriage records appears in 1924 when he found love a second time in a woman named Lena Singleton.

In the late 1920s he came to Philadelphia and found a job as a cook at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. He then became a cook at the Pennsboro Inn in Morrisville, Bucks County, according to his obituary. It also says that, from 1932 until he retired in 1962, Ed was the head chef at the Colton Court resort hotel in Cape May, New Jersey, pictured here from about that time frame.

However there were some breaks in his resume, according to census reports. In 1940 he said his job was a laborer at a laundry, but was unemployed when he registered for the draft in 1942. The next census listed him as a cook in a fraternity house. His skills at the Colton Court were only needed on a seasonal basis.

And there was another break in his married life. The obituary indicates he married Catherine Battallio sometime in 1940, living with her two children and his two children at 1613 North 12th Street. The census was taken earlier in the year, where they were listed as single and they had been living in the same house since 1935. On the day they wed she was 28 and he was 52 but the third time for him was his last.

The 1950 census shows one child living with them from before their marriage, Charles Battallio. He was born in 1932 after she divorced her first husband and had reverted to her maiden name. Catherine and Ed had two children after their wedding, Betty Gosha in 1943 and Eddie Gosha in 1949.

A few years after he came north to settle in the big city, Ed settled on a church, the Monumental Baptist Church at 50th and Locust Streets. He was a faithful member there for over 60 years and that was where his funeral service was held. The only records for Catherine’s later years say she died in 1974 but her burial location is undocumented.

Their daughter, Betty, was interviewed about her father and mentioned his passion for his favorite basketball team. He was well known among his friends and church family for never missing a game on radio or TV. He got so excited when the Sixers won the championship in 1983 that he fell out of his wheelchair. In addition to that special 100th birthday party mentioned earlier, the team gave him an autographed basketball.

Of all the things she mentioned, her growing up with a great cook wasn’t one of them. Instead, Betty said, “I’ve never seen him upset. He had a way of making everyone calm around him.” She also noted that he never had any serious health problems, and described Ed’s last day of life. She had him speak to her husband on the phone and he appeared fine. A half-hour later she found him looking like he was asleep. 

“I guess his heart just got tired,” she said. At the age of 108 his family included Betty, Eddie, 13 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter.