Joan Simpson 1934-1939

SIMPSON, SWANSON

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 2/21/2012 at 20:44:36

Falls From Auto
What was to have been a happy visit to grandma and grandpa’s house Friday morning turned to tragedy for the Simpson and Swanson families. Little Joan Simpson, five year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Simpson fell from the auto in which she was riding with her father and younger sister Gloria, 2, suffering a skull fracture from which she passed away Saturday [November 11, 1939] morning at the Coleman hospital. They were enroute to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Swanson at Spirit Lake where they were to have spent the day.

The two girls were riding alone in the back seat with their father driving. As youngsters will, they were scuffling in their play in spite of their father’s admonitions to be quiet. In some manner the door lock became unfastened when the older child bumped against it and she fell to the gravel highway. It was a new car.

Lives Until Next Morning
The child was rushed to a doctor’s office in Estherville, then to the Coleman hospital.

Funeral services were held on Monday afternoon at two o’clock from the home southwest of Estherville in the Terril community and at 2:30 p.m. from the Christian church, with the Rev. Fred Sawyer in charge. Interment was made in the East Side cemetery. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, November 14, 1939)