Cammie Abel Wilcox, 97

August 10, 2024

Cammie Abel Wilcox died peacefully on Saturday evening, August 10, 2024, surrounded by close family members. A Celebration of Life service will be held on August 17, 2024, at 1 pm at the Johnson Auditorium in the Manor North building of Willow Valley Communities.

Cammie was born during the “Great Flood” in Belzoni, Mississippi on April 19, 1927. She was the daughter of James Fred and Fannie Mae Abel and was the oldest of five children. Her siblings were Jewell, James Fred, Jr., Billy Joe, and Gilmer Abel. She graduated from Belzoni High School in 1945 and attended Mississippi State College for Women in Columbus, MS.

During World War II, she assisted in the war effort by working in an ammunition plant in Mississippi. After college, she became a dietitian at hospitals in Memphis, TN and Jackson, MS. In 1948, she became a hostess for Southern Railways, serving on trains between New Orleans and New York City. During this time, she met her future husband, Bob, through mutual friends at her home station in Washington, DC, and they were married in a military wedding in 1949.

When her husband entered Indiana University on the GI Bill in 1950, she worked as a dietitian at the university to support the family until he finished his education. Her first son was born during their time at the university.

After her husband’s graduation from Indiana University in 1952, they moved to Lancaster, PA, where she raised a family of four children–two sons and two daughters–on Chestnut Hill. During her years in Lancaster, Cammie was a devoted mother, a dedicated volunteer, and a generous host for numerous neighborhood gatherings and dance parties.

She co-founded the Town and Country Garden Club in Lancaster, PA and won many awards for her skill in flower arranging. She was a dedicated member of the Lancaster Riding and Tennis Club (now the Tennis and Yacht Club), and at one point boosted club engagement by hosting popular dinners featuring local members’ favorite recipes. For many years, she worked for H&R Block, preparing income returns, and in later years, co-founded and operated a family payroll business.

She and her husband often traveled to Europe with the Air Force and enjoyed many cruises with friends to Bermuda and the Caribbean Islands. She arranged a month-long European trip for the whole family in 1972. They purchased a VW bus in Frankfurt and traveled 5,000 miles through Sweden, England, the Riviera and most of Western Europe before heading for home.

For the past 21 years, she has been a well-loved resident at the Willow Valley Communities.

She was widely known among friends and family members as the “best dancer east of the Mississippi” and captured the dance floor with her “Charleston” until she was no longer able to walk. Until the end of her life, she would join in light-hearted fun with her great-grandchildren by snapping her fingers and shimmying in her wheelchair.

She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother–a true matriarch of a large and connected family. She was married for 67 years to Robert Donald Wilcox of Providence, RI, who died in 2017. She is survived by four children: a son, Donald Alan, of Yardley, PA, and his wife Hillary; a son Randy, of Harrisonburg, VA, and his wife Ginnie; a daughter Linda, of Rockville Centre, NY, and her husband Michael; and a daughter Donna Swisher, of Queens, NY. She was predeceased by one granddaughter, Jennifer Winicki, and is survived by five grandsons, six granddaughters, and 18 great-grandchildren. Many of them surrounded her in her last days of life. She is also survived by one brother, Gilmer Ray Abel of Jasper, TX and a sister-in-law, Kathryn Abel of Jackson, MS.

She will be interred at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA beside her husband, a retired Air Force Colonel.

Flowers (with delivery on the morning of August 17th), may be sent to 600 Willow Valley Square, Lancaster, PA. 17602.

Memorial donations may be sent to: Town and Country Garden Club; c/o Joyce Crider; 11 N Luther Lane; Columbia, PA 17512-2406.