Angelo A. Levecchia, 79; boxer fought as ‘Joey Allen’


Camden Courier Post – January 30, 1992

EVESHAM—Services will be held Friday for Angelo A. Levecchia, a featherweight and light- weight boxer who fought as “Joey Allen.”

Mr. Levecchia, 79, also helped train Arnold Cream, who, when Mr. Levecchia was his trainer, went on to win fame as the heavyweight champion of the world under the name “Jersey Joe Walcott.”

Mr. Levecchia’s wife, Antoinette, said her husband died Monday at West Jersey Hospital, Marlton, after fighting pneumonia and a kidney infection for four weeks.

Mr. Levecchia, she said, “was never the same man after his neighbor attacked him with a Samurai sword seven years ago.”

The neighbor, who was then a 15-year-old boy, “attacked us at 5 am…It was terrible.” Mr. Levecchia lost the use of several fingers during the attack and had an arm reconstructed from a piece of bone in his hip. His attacker was sentenced to serve 20 years in a state reformatory.

As a boxer, Mr. Levecchia had 72 professional bouts, winning 55, losing 11, with six draws.

“He was a fighter,” said Mrs. Levecchia.” He talked tough but he was easy as anything.”

He died, said Mrs. Levecchia, on the 41st anniversary of their marriage.

Mr. Levecchia lived in the Woodstream section of Marlton since 1963 after formerly living in Woodlynne and South Camden. He worked for 22 years in the maintenance department at the Campbell Soup Co, Camden, retiring in 1977.

He was also a member of the Lions Club of Williamstown.

Besides his wife, Levecchia is survived by a son, Michael and daughter-in-law, Pamela of Vineland; two granddaughters, Dana and Holly; two brothers, Henry E. of Camden and Nicholas of Pennsauken; and two sisters, Mary and Fanny Levecchia, both of Pennsauken.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Joan of Arc Church, Willow Bend and Evans roads, Marlton. Friends may call Friday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Bradley Funeral Home, Route 73 and Evesham Road, Marlton.

Entombment will be in the Calvary Cemetary, Cherry Hill.


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