Patsy Mozier
Name: Patsy Mozier
Alias: Irish Paddy Mozier
Birth Name: Aloysius Eugene Francis Patrick Mozier
Hometown: Fort Myer, Virginia, USA
Birthplace: Newport News, Virginia, USA
Died: 1970-02-27 (Age:66)
Height: 171cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Patsy Mozier was born Aloysius Eugene Francis Patrick Mozier on April 20, 1903, in Newport News, Virginia, to Alonzo J. Mozier, who was born in 1874, New York. Alonzo had at least seven other sons and four daughters with Theresa Moore (1879-1943). The family lived in Dowagiac, Michigan in 1910, and later in Camden, New Jersey for about 20 years. Alonzo died in 1957, at the age of 83, and was buried in Delaware Township, Gloucester, New Jersey, United States. [1]
A 1924 newspaper article said that Patsy had been born in Belfast, Ireland, and raised on Kelly Street in Akron, Ohio. (Incidentally, Goodyear built its first balloon in 1912 and the next year began building and flying balloons in national and international competitions. In 1916, Goodyear bought 720 acres of land southeast of Akron to serve as a flying field and manufacturing site. If he had indeed grown up in Akron, Mozier likely may have become interested in blimps around this time.) [2]
That January 1924 article also reported that he was 18 and had been in the United States Navy for five years. But that article is incorrect, because later information shows that he was born in 1903, not circa 1906, and that he was a week shy of 17 when he joined the U.S. Navy in April 1920.
While serving in the Navy, Patsy Mozier was a professional boxer. Said to have been originally from California, he moved around the country in conjunction with his Navy duties. (See, for example, [3].)
At one point, while boxing, he was called the "fighting clown." [4]. Sometimes he was reported as "Irish Paddy Mozier."
By early 1923 Mozier was serving at the Anacostia Naval Air Station near Washington, D.C. [5] [6]
By late 1923 he was stationed at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey--the major American base for rigid airships (known as blimps or dirigibles). The air station was also where the Navy trained pilots and crew to fly and operate these large aircraft. [7] [8] (Lakehurst was the site of the future Hindenburg disaster.)
Seaman Patsy Mozier was assigned to Navy Blimp ZR-1 in 1923 as a mechanic. [9]
The ZR-1 was also known as the USS Shenandoah. [10]
Reportedly the youngest member of the Shenandoah's crew, machinist Mozier came to national attention in January 1924, via an NEA wire service article, when the blimp broke from its mooring with Mozier and 21 other men aboard. [11]. His photo, with a cap pulled down over his forehead, appeared in a number of national newspapers.
According to the January 19, 1924 edition of the Camden Daily Courier (p. 2), his father resided in the Fairview section of Camden at 3006 Hartford Road, where Seaman Mozier also lived.
According to his World War II draft card, Mozier's residence was in Baltimore. He apparently had some income tax problems at the time and seemed reluctant to state that he owned a business. He did write down that he was a "Sportsman." It is possible that he owned a stable of horses in Richmond Hills, Virginia.
According to U.S. Census Records, Mozier lived in Camden, New Jersey (1920 and 1930 records), and in Los Angeles County (1950). He had worked as a laborer in the shipyards (1920), and had served in the U.S. Navy (1930).
According to later U.S. Census Records, Aloysius E. Mozer was living with his wife, Maria L. Mozier, in the Centinela area of Los Angeles. Aloysius worked in "Gardening" while Maria was a machine bookkeeper for an aircraft manufacturer.
In October 1960 he was charged in United States Federal District Court in Detroit, Michigan, with impersonating a retired Navy lieutenant in order to catch a ride on a military plane in California the previous March. A news photo also noted that he called himself "Patty Gardenseed" because he had given away more than two million seeds in the last nine years with the intent of creating a green belt around the world.
According to a grave marker application found on Ancestry.com, Aloysius Eugene Mozier served twice in the U.S. military--the first stint from April 13, 1920 to July 29, 1929; and the second from June 10, 1942 to January 13, 1943.
He had served in both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps. Mozier was a Machinist's Mate with rank of Second Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, and a Staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery.