Posted by Terry Powers on November 22, 2022:

Anthony "Tony" Cavalcante, Jr., passed away March 11, 2011 in Hospice of Lancaster County in Mount Joy. He was born in Uniontown, on June 24, 1926 to Anthony Cavalcante, Sr. of Uniontown and the former Emma Salome Diehl of Carlisle. The son of a U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania State Senator, and Fayette County Commissioner, Tony graduated in the West Point Class of 1949 as a Chemical Engineering major. Forever a soldier, "Duty, Honor, Country" was his method and motto in life. Tony left the U.S. Army as a Captain in 1955 after serving in Korea and recapturing the Koje-Do Internment Camp from the Chinese and the North Korean prisoners of war. He and forty-nine other West Point graduates were hired by and reported directly to Admiral Rickover at Bettis Atomic Power in Dravosburg, outside of Pittsburgh, where he was on the engineering team that built the atomic powered USS Seawolf (SSN575). Also during this time period, he was an active proponent of the Custer Channel Wing short takeoff and landing aircraft for military use. After serving as the Pittsburgh-Area Representative in the 1964 Republican Presidential campaign, Tony joined and devoted many years to the John Birch Society as a National Representative from 1968 to his retirement. In retired life, he kept active by publishing a weekly electronic newsletter of political commentary. He also was a prolific abstract artist following in the style of Piet Mondrian. While living in McKeesport, Tony married and fathered five children with Mitzie LaVerne Wunderly. Surviving him are his daughters: Debra Ann McDonald of Lititz, Jennifer Sue Weachter of Lancaster, and Cari Jo Cavalcante of Overland Park, Kansas; his sons: Jeffrey Lee Cavalcante of Louisville, Kentucky and Anthony Cavalcante III of Atlanta, Georgia; his six grandchildren; his five great-grandchildren; his sister: Cynthia Salome McClymonds of Fayetteville, Arkansas; and, his former wife: Mitzie. There will be no viewing. He will be laid to rest in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 in a private ceremony. Spacht Funeral Home, Lititz Lancaster Intelligencer Journal / New Era 3/16/2011

admin