Gale Keeney (1939-1949)

KEENEY

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 2/1/2015 at 07:30:11

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, June 2, 1949

3,000 Attend Keeney Rites

Crowd Takes 1 1/2 Hours To File Past Caskets

Andrew, Iowa
Three thousand friends, relatives and strangers Wednesday crowded into this village of only a few hundred to pay their last respects to five Keeneys- Harlan, 30, and his son, Gale, 9; and Ronald, 12; Milton, 10; and Donald, 8; all sons of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Keeney- all victims of Sunday's drowning accident near Green Island.

The services were conducted at the Salem Lutheran church, because the relatives of the dead, had feared their own church, the Federated church, would be too small. Only about 400 of the 3,000 mourners could crowd into the body of the church. The basement was opened for part of the overflow, but more than 2,000 stood outside.

At the end of the services the doors were opened and the crowd from outside filed past the five caskets. The undertaker estimated it took an hour and a half for the crowd to pass. The Legion and VFW firing squads from Maquoketa were present at the cemetery and accorded military honors for Harlan Keeney, a World War II veteran. The three brothers were buried together in one grave and Harlan and his son in another.

Gale Keeney grave
 

Jackson Obituaries maintained by Nettie Mae Lucas.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen