Nancy Elice Hammans (1974)

HAMMANS, CANFIELD, GALLOWAY, FOSHER

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 7/6/2006 at 14:01:40

Winterset Madisonian
March 27, 1974

Nancy Hammans

A young Madison County native was one of four persons swept to their deaths by a giant wave along the north shore of the island of Oahu, Hawaii last Saturday, March, 23.

Nancy Hammans, 26, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Hammans of rural Lorimor, was one of those drowned in the accident.

According to reports received from Hawaii by her parents, Miss Hammans was swept off Sunset Beach at about 3:30 p.m. (Hawaii time) Saturday. She was one of nine persons caught by the wave. Four of those nine were drowned.

Miss Hammans had gone to the beach with her cousin, Marcia Canfield of Des Moines; and Mrs. Byron Galloway of Honolulu. Miss Hammans and Mrs. Galloway were team teaching partners in the Kindergarten-First Grade sections of the Waianae Elementary School on Oahu.

Reports from Hawaii indicate that the three women were sitting together on the beach away from the ocean, when the large wave came in. Miss Canfield was able to dig her heels into the sand and hold onto a rock, thereby saving herself. Both her companions drowned.

Miss Canfield, 18-year-old daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Earle Canfield of Des Moines, was in Hawaii on a week-long visit as a high school graduation gift from her parents. Her father is dean of the Graduate School at Drake University.

The bodies of the drowning victims were recovered from the ocean several hours following the accident. Miss Hammans' parents were notified at 2:00 a.m. Sunday.

Miss Hammans had lived in Hawaii since first going there to teach school in August of 1970. She lived in Honolulu, where she also was working towards a masters degree at the University of Hawaii.

Nancy Elice Hammans was born in Des Moines on February 10, 1948, the daughter of Jack and Martha Fosher Hammans. She was a 1966 graduate of Winterset Community High School and obtained a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1970.

She was affiliated with the United Presbyterian Church and was a member of the Presbyterian Women's Service Society and the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.

Survivors include her parents; one brother, Paul, at home; and her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Fosher of Winterset.

Funeral services have been set for 2:00 p.m. Thursday March 28, at the First United Presbyterian Church in Winterset, with the Rev. Alan Parker officiating. Burial will be in the Lorimor cemetery.