DONNELLY, Leland 1924-1933

DONNELLY

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 1/26/2015 at 02:46:08

[Waterloo Daily Courier Sunday, January 8, 1933, Waterloo, Iowa]

LELAND DONNELLY FALLS THRU ICE ON CEDAR CUTOFF

Body of Boy, 8, Recovered from Hole Near Where Sled Was Found

Funeral services for Leland Donnelly, 8-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Donnelly, 1224 Avalon Avenue, Waterloo's first 1933 drowning victim, will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the O'Keefe & Towne chapel, Rev, W. W. Bowers, pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church, officiating.

Leland's body was recovered from the lower end of Cedar river cutoff, near the mouth of Black Hawk Creek, at 8:37 p.m. Friday by Peter McEnany, 157 Duryea Street.

Previously, at 8:05 p.m. McEnany also had found the sled on which the boy had been sliding on the ice.

City firemen for 45 minutes preceding the finding of the body had dragged the river bottom with grappling hooks after chopping holes at several places in the ice. McEnany found the body with a long pike pole in an open spot in the water, near where the sled was found, evidently almost at the very spot where the boy had broken thru the ice.

The body when found, was clad in high top boots, overalls, leather jacket, and a leather head helmet Rigor mortis already had set in. The water in which the body was found is only four or five deep.

Coroner Sidney D. Smith, after making an investigation, declared death was due to accidental drowning. No inquest will be held.

Because of the swift current in the cutoff, several firemen, police officers and volunteer searchers had deployed a short distance downstream from the place where the boy was believed to have fallen in. Work of all searchers was made doubly difficult because of the darkness and the ice.

The Donnelly boy was believed to have been last seen alive shortly before noon Friday. He had preceded two other youths around a bend in the cutoff. When his companions came to the place where the body later was found, the boy had disappeared. The playmates supposed Leland had gone home to lunch, and
gave the matter no more thought.

The last persons believed to have seen Leland are Donald Durchenwald, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Durchenwald, 1502 Avalon Avenue, and Roger Stephens, 8-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Stephens, 1406 Avalon Avenue.

The two youths were riding on an ice sailboat, belonging to Durchenwald. Leland had gone on ahead with a sled belonging to the little Stephens boy.

Leland's parents became alarmed at about 5 p. m. when their son did not return, and instituted inquiry among neighbors. When they discovered none of the neighbors knew of the boy's whereabouts, the parents asked for help from the sheriff's office, police and fire departments.

Leland Donnelly was born Nov. 18, 1924, in Bates, Ore. He was in the 2-B grade at Edison School, and attended Sunday school at Northminster Presbyterian Church.

Surviving are his parents and a brother, Jack, jr., 8 weeks old. The family has resided in Waterloo for three years.

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[Waterloo Daily Courier, Monday, January 9, 1933, Waterloo, Iowa]

The body of Leland Donnelly, 8-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Donnelly, 1224 Avalon Avenue, who was drowned Friday in a cutoff of the Cedar River, will be burled In Baker, Ore. The body, however will not be taken there until late in the spring. Services were conducted at the O'Keefe & Towne Funeral Home
at 2:30 p. m. Monday by Rev. W W. Bowers, pastor of First Methodist Episcopal church.