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- Ernest P. "Ernie" Meckley, 87, of Robesonia, entered into rest unexpectedly on Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at the M.S. Hershey Medical Center.
Born in Berks County, he was a son of the late Alvin and Bertha (Rentz) Meckley. He retired from Bollman Hat Co., Adamstown, and was the owner of Meckley's Hat Shop in Sinking Spring and Eagles Peak Campground. Ernie was very active in the Sinking Spring Fire Company, loved baseball, and as an avid golfer, was the recipient of numerous trophies.
He is survived by four children, Shirley A. (Donald E.) Hackman, Denver, Nancy L. Martin, West Lawn, Larry E. (Deborah Willis) Meckley, Tyler, Texas, and Linda M. (John) Hughes, Exeter; eight grandchildren, Debra Kern, Denise Mayer, Lisa Grube, Sharlene Koyste, Ken Meckley, Christine Grace, Brad and Sheri Meckley; nine great-grandchildren; a brother, Warren Meckley, Mifflinburg, and a sister, Esther (Harold) Krick, Florida. He will be sadly missed by his long-time companion, Arlene Weitzel, her daughter Lisa and her grandchildren. Ernie was predeceased by a brother Lester, and a sister, Betty Coldren.
The funeral and viewing were on Friday, Nov. 2 in the Roseboro Funeral Home, 533 Walnut St., Denver. Interment was in Pleasant View Cemetery, Fritztown. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Leukemia Society of America, Central PA Chapter 800, Corporate Circle Room 100, Harrisburg, PA 17110.
www.roseborofuneralhome.com
- https://berksnostalgia.com/meckleys-hat-shop/
Meckley’s Hat Shop
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 10, 2020 BY ALEXA FREYMAN
If you ever visited Sinking Spring to purchase a hat from Meckley’s Hat Shop, you may have been acquainted with my great-grandfather, Ernest Meckley. He grew up in Fritztown and his career began in 1938 at Bollman Hat Factory in Adamstown. Ernie’s career with hats didn’t begin in retail but the manufacturing of the product. His retail experience began as friends and neighbors asked him to bring them hats at wholesale prices. Demand grew and by the early 1950s he saw an opportunity to open his own retail location in his home area of Sinky.
My Grandmother posing in the late 1950s in front of her father’s sign for Meckley’s Hat Shop along Columbia Avenue in Sinking Spring. The very first “shop” was run out of the basement of his and my great-grandmother’s home on Columbia Avenue. When demand outgrew the basement’s capacity, he built a structure behind their home to continue expanding on his wholesale hat business.
April 1961, Grandmother holding my infant mother in front of Meckley’s Hat Shop
My great-grandparents divorced in the mid 1960s and Ernie moved his business one more time to a structure he had built on Mount Home Road. It was there that he continued selling hats until his retirement in 1989.
I spent a part of my childhood playing with my cousins in the structure pictured above in my Granny’s backyard. Her name was Mamie Meckley and she continued to live in that house on Columbia Avenue until age-related issues forced her to move in with my grandmother, her daughter, in 2007. We still called it the Hat Shop during my childhood, long after the hats had vacated the premises. We would sweep the floors, find old treasures and dusty hat boxes during our summer day adventures there. Of course I had no idea of its significance at the time, but have since come to learn just how many locals walked through that doorway to purchase hats from my great-grandfather’s business.
Ernie showing off his hats for a Reading Times article in 1978 – Photo by J. Charles Gardner
Ernie passed away on October 29th, 2007 after a fight with Leukemia. He was an avid golfer in his free time and also owned Eagles Peak Campground. If he wasn’t golfing or camping you could find him at Sinking Spring Fire Company.
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1920 - 2007 (87 years)
