He was a veteran of six WWII campaigns. His body lay unclaimed, but now he'll get honors

Eugene Dednam, a 100-year-old World War II veteran, will be laid to rest Tuesday at George Washington Memorial Park Cemetery in Paramus with military honors.

A lifelong Hackensack resident, Dednam died April 5 in the Berdan Place home where he grew up. His body lay unclaimed while Bergen County medical examiners and people in the Sheriff's Office searched for a living relative.

Medical examiners typically check for military service as part of the search for information when there is an unclaimed body. In Dednam’s case, pictures of his unit during the war and a framed certificate found in his home also provided clues to his time in the military, said Debra Trentacosta, a medical examiner with the county.

“We didn’t have much to go by, but things like that gave us the idea that he was in the service,” she said. “He was an only child; he never married and didn’t have any children. We wanted to make sure he received a quick and honorable burial.”

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Veterans' cases in Bergen County are referred to Shaun Hutchinson, the county’s acting director of veterans services, who then verifies eligibility for a military burial.

Often, unclaimed veterans are buried in Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown, but it turned out that Dednam had a plot next to his parents in the Paramus cemetery and clear burial wishes stated in his will, Hutchinson said.

Deshaune Hicks, his neighbor of 10 years, described Dednam as a kind and headstrong man who preferred to keep to himself. Even at 100, he was proudly independent, but gratefully, if somewhat reluctantly, accepted help from Hicks, who ran errands for him, picked up groceries and mowed his lawn.

“He always believed he could do things on his own, by himself,” Hicks said. “Every day I would check in on him and we would talk. He just liked having my company and someone to talk to.”

The centenarian loved sweets, especially chocolate bars, and on Sundays he would play jazz music from his vast record collection so loudly that people could hear it as they walked past his house, Hicks said. Although he had stopped driving, Dednam enjoyed taking short walks to local shops. An avid stamp collector, he would often ask Hicks, who works in the post office, to bring him home the latest release.

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Eugene Dednam was born in Hackensack on March 14, 1922, to Porter and Cecelia Dednam. He graduated from Hackensack High School and worked as a stock clerk before joining the U.S. Army at age 20 in 1943.

He shipped off to Europe in January 1944 with the 4043rd Quartermaster Truck Company. Dednam served in six campaigns, including the Ardennes, Central Europe, Normandy, Northern France and Rome-Arno, where he earned the European-African-Middle Eastern Service, World War II Victory and Army Good Conduct medals.

During World War II, Black soldiers such as Dednam faced discrimination even as they were fighting for others’ freedoms abroad. Many of the bases and facilities where they trained were in the Jim Crow South. In the war, they served in segregated units and were mostly relegated to positions as mechanics and cooks, building roads and unloading supplies.

During the war, Dednam was a truck driver, transporting soldiers from battle to battle, Hutchinson said.

After returning home, the 1.2 million Black military veterans who served in the war were largely denied the benefits of the GI Bill.

Hicks said he was unsure if Dednam had attended college, but that he had spoken of a long career in retail.

Dednam didn’t talk much of his service during the war, Hicks said, except to share stories of places he visited while traveling across Europe. Mostly he would talk about things closer to home.

“He had seen a lot of changes: how trains used to run right through the streets in Hackensack, the stores that used to be here,” Hicks said. “Our last conversation, we were talking about goodwill. He was big on someone having goodwill or good intent towards him, and he said he could always find that in me.”

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As the closest friend or relative county workers could find, Hicks will be given the folded American flag draped over Dednam’s coffin during the military funeral on Tuesday.

“I will take it with open arms,” Hicks said. “He was like a grandfather to me. I’m going to honor him.”

A funeral procession will leave Warner-Wozniak Funeral Service, 80 Midland Ave. in Wallington, at 10:30 a.m. A graveside funeral service at 11 a.m. will follow, with military honors at George Washington Memorial Park Cemetery, 234 Paramus Road, Paramus.

Megan Burrow is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: burrow@northjersey.com

Twitter: @MegBurrow

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: World War II veteran whose body lay unclaimed will get honors