Keyveat Postell, 86, snazzy dresser & hard-working family man
Keyveat Postell Sr., a hard-working family man who usually held two jobs at once, died Dec. 31. He was a world traveler, elegant dresser, dedicated churchman and a cook whose made-from-scratch biscuits were a family legend. He was 86 and lived in Wynnefield.
Keyveat Postell Sr., a hard-working family man who usually held two jobs at once, died Dec. 31. He was a world traveler, elegant dresser, dedicated churchman and a cook whose made-from-scratch biscuits were a family legend. He was 86 and lived in Wynnefield.
Keyveat was a truck driver whose last employer was the Boston Candy Co., for which he drove for 25 years. He also operated a van taking schoolchildren from South Philadelphia to Lower Merion.
Also, he worked in maintenance for his church, Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal, in West Philadelphia, where he also sang on the Chancellor Choir, served as church treasurer and was a member of the Men's Auxiliary and the Usher Board.
Keyveat was born in Belville, Fla., to Catherine Holton and Collie Postell. He attended school in Belville, and came to Philadelphia in 1945.
As a traveler, his excursions included Australia, where he had an uncle, as well as Africa, Hawaii and the Caribbean.
"He didn't let any grass grow under his feet," said his daughter Tanya Postell Lone.
"He was quiet, suave and debonair," she said. "He was a great dresser. He had about 50 suits."
As for his cooking, Tanya said that she had asked him for his recipe for his biscuits.
"All he said was 'a pinch of this, a dot of that,' " she said. "My biscuits never tasted like his. He also specialized in fried chicken and sweet-potato pie.
"He was a perfect, model husband and father, a hard-working, strong, religious man."
He married Laroux Swain in 1943, but the marriage ended in divorce. He married the Rev. Betty Arnold Postell, an assistant minister of Mount Pisgah Church, in 1957.
Besides his wife and daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Betty Savage; three sons, Keyveat Jr., Marvin and Russell; one brother, Archie Lee Postell; two sisters, Caretha Williams and Vivian Livingston; 17 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
Services: 11 a.m. tomorrow at Mount Pisgah AME Church, 41st and Spring Garden streets. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Rolling Green Memorial Park, West Chester. *