Joseph L. Pluta Jr., 87, stevedore, Mummer

Joseph L. Pluta Jr., 87, of Williamstown, a longtime Mummer in the comics brigades who learned to play the banjo and transferred to the string bands, died of pneumonia on Friday, July 9, at Kennedy Memorial Hospital-Washington Township.

Following in his father's and uncle's footsteps, Mr. Pluta became a Mummer at 6. He designed and made some of his own outfits, including one suit made entirely of milk-bottle caps.

Having grown up near South Second Street, he marched along with the comics, who were like family to him. However, after returning from World War II with a severe leg injury, he had to withdraw from marching on New Year's Day, but he continued to help with costumes and fund-raising, his family said.

The death of his daughter Patricia in 1968 devastated him so much that he left the comics. On a winter trip to Florida soon after, Mr. Pluta learned to play the banjo and came back to join the string bands, including Sterling and Broomall. He played until two days before he died.

After the Philadelphia native graduated from high school in the early 1940s, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1943, he was drafted and became an M-1 rifle sharpshooter.

He was involved in the bloodshed in the Ardennes and on Dec. 23, 1944, was wounded by enemy fire that almost ripped off his left leg. Army medics picked him up and tried to warm him, but the cold was so brutal that little helped. They put him atop a jeep hood so the engine could help prevent frostbite and hypothermia, said his wife, Theresa. He was awarded a Purple Heart.

Mr. Pluta spent the next two years recovering in hospitals. During one of his leaves from the Newton D. Baker Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va., in 1945, he married Theresa McGoldrick, whom he had met years earlier at a dance.

After his discharge in 1946, Mr. Pluta became a stevedore, working at ports in Philadelphia and South Jersey for more than 30 years. In 1948, he and his wife moved to Williamstown.

The Plutas owned and operated the Carlton Motel in North Wildwood for 20 years and sold it in the mid-1980s, his wife said.

Mr. Pluta and his wife never missed a New Year's Day parade and would attend string band concerts every Thursday evening.

"That was his love," she said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Pluta is survived by son Joseph and daughter Teresa Burkhart; three sisters; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A viewing will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, and 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 14, at the Bell-Hennessy Funeral Home, 420 S. Main St., Williamstown. A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 14, at Our Lady of Peace Parish/St. Mary's Church, 32 Carroll Ave., Williamstown. Interment will be at St. Mary's Cemetery, Williamstown.