Thomas Alan Leininger 1959-1969

LEININGER, COLEBERG, KLINE, BLOOMQUIST, SCHWIDDER

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 4/26/2014 at 19:44:20

Set Wednesday Services for 10-year-old Drowning Victim
Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dolliver Lutheran Church for a 10-year-old Dolliver youth who drowned about 2:30 p.m. yesterday while on a family picnic at Tuttle Lake.

Thomas Alan Leininger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Leininger, drowned while trying to help rescue the family boat that had drifted away from shore. Emmet County Sheriff Bob Knox, who was called to the scene, said that the family boat had apparently drifted away from shore. Three of the older Leininger children swam after it and got into the boat.

Knox said that Thomas, who also swam out to the boat, got in “some sort of trouble” while in the water, and when the other children tried to help him get into the boat, his life jacket slipped off and he went under the water.

Thomas’s body was recovered after three hours of dragging operations supervised by the Emmet County sheriff’s office.

Knox expressed his appreciation to units from Estherville, Ceylon, Minn., the State Conservation Commission, Spirit Lake, Spencer, and all others who assisted in recovering the body.

The Rev. S.S. Sill will officiate at funeral services. Visitation will be held at the Reese-Henry Funeral Home after 3 p.m. Tuesday until noon on Wednesday. Burial will be in the Dolliver cemetery.

Thomas was a fifth grader at the Dolliver grade school. He was born Feb. 28, 1959, at Estherville.

Survivors include his parents; four brothers, Marvin John Jr., Dennis, James, Jerald; four sisters, Mrs. Lonnie (Carol) Bloomquist, Maple Hill; Mrs. Robert (Rosemary) Schwidder, Estherille; Goldie and Penny at home; paternal grandmother, Mrs. Goldie Leininger, Dolliver; maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Coleberg, Algona; great-grandmother, Mrs. Henry Kline, Iowa Falls. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, July 14, 1969)