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COMMUNITY - PAGE 3: Drowning 1955
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The following news item appeared in the July 6, 1955 edition of the Dayton Daily News.
“Double services will be held at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Webb funeral home for a mother and her five-year-old son who drowned Monday in Four Mile Creek, south of Darrtown. Dead are Mrs. Mollie Dilyard Reece, 24, of 343 Vine st. and her son, Thomas Allen Smith, 5.
Butler sheriff’s deputies said the drowning was detected by Charles Bowling, 29, of 1202 Clearview av. who struck the boy’s body, when diving into the creek from a tree. A number of others were swimming nearby, but none witnessed the drowning.
The woman’s husband, John Reece, had left the creek and was listening to a baseball game on a car radio. Mrs. Reece has been employed by Lane public library, as a driver of a bookmobile.
The following news item appeared in the July 5, 1955 edition of the Dayton Journal Herald as a special report from the Hamilton (Ohio) Daily News.
HAMILTON, July 4 - A Hamilton mother and her five-year-old son drowned today in Four-Mile creek, some seven miles from here. The victims are identified as Mrs. Mollie Dilliard Reece, 24, driver of the Lane Public Library bookmobile, and her son, Tommy Allen Smith.
The drowning occurred while John Reece, the mother’s husband, listened to a ball game on the car radio, about 100 feet away.
The double drowning was discovered by Charles Bowling, also of Hamilton. Bowling dived from a tree into the creek and his hand felt the boy’s foot. Bowling said he first thought “friends were playing a trick.” He went down again and found the boy’s body.
The boy was identified by Reece and a search began for Mrs. Reece’s body. She was found under a sunken stump about five feet from where the boy had drowned.
The mother and son went swimming about 2:30. The boy’s body was discovered at 4:15. The Oxford Life Saving squad gave artificial respiration, until the mother’s body was discovered two hours later by Ralph Kearney, Fairfield township constable.
The creek is located on Schollenbarger road between Oxford and Darrtown. Louis Fritz, Butler county deputy sheriff, said the spot is the same location where two other persons drowned two years ago.
Today’s drowning occurred in 11 feet of water.
MOTHER AND SON DROWN AT FOUR MILE CREEK
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