David Weiner, 81; owned Maple Shade's Food Basket

David Weiner, 81, of Maple Shade, longtime owner of the Food Basket in the Delair section of Pennsauken and a volunteer firefighter for the Delaview Fire Company, died of cardiovascular disease Feb. 25 at Virtua Marlton.

Mr. Weiner owned and operated Food Basket, a corner grocery store that his father started in the 1930s on River Road in Pennsauken, for nearly 30 years.

He did everything from placing orders to using his butcher skills to cut a lean piece of meat.

But he was mostly known for his playful attitude.

"He loved his job - not so much having the grocery store but having the kids come in so he could play jokes on them," said his wife, Ethel.

One time, he played a prank on a young customer who came in almost daily.

"He told the customer that he heard a lion had escaped from the zoo," his son, Louis, recalled.

The boy, a regular customer, didn't believe him, but Mr. Weiner kept the story going for days. On the third day, Mr. Weiner ran out the back door as soon as the boy left. When the boy walked by the trash bin, Mr. Weiner "roared like a lion," causing the boy to drop his groceries and run as fast as he could.

It was in good fun, his family said.

Young people from surrounding neighborhoods loved to work for Mr. Weiner, who hired brother after brother from some families.

Mr. Weiner and his wife, who helped out at the store, never took a vacation, she said. Whatever free time he had on evenings or some weekends he dedicated to firefighting and helping people.

He was a Delaview volunteer for about 40 years. His helmet was tucked in his casket, his wife said.

Mr. Weiner was born and raised in Delair. He was known as the class jokester at Palmyra High School, where his senior yearbook listed him under "happiest" student.

"He was suspended once. He lit up and smoked a cigar in class," Louis Weiner said.

Despite his antics, Mr. Weiner graduated in 1946 and soon enlisted in the Army. He served as a technician based in Japan from 1946 to 1948.

When he returned from the war, he started working for his father's store.

In 1949, he met his future wife. The couple married on April Fools' Day 1951, which everyone in the family saw as fitting for the joking groom.

Mr. Weiner took over his father's business in the late 1950s and ran it until he retired in the mid-1980s. He and his family moved to Maple Shade in 1986.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Weiner is survived by a daughter, Lois Butt, and eight grandchildren. Another daughter, Sandra Beluch, died in 2001.

A funeral was held Sunday.