Yunker, Mrs. Fred c1868 – 1909

YUNKER

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 9/28/2019 at 17:01:04

Source: Twice-A-Week Plain Dealer Nov. 19, 1909, 2, C4

MOTHER GIVES LIFE TO SAVE HER CHILD
Mrs. Fred Yunker of Des Moines is Fatally Burned in a Tragic Rescue.
Mrs. Fred Yunker, aged forty-one of Des Moines sleeps in a grave in Glendale cemetery, the victim of her own heroism in saving her little nine year-old son, Michael, from the flames The child was saved and will soon be playing with his comrades as usual but will always bear the scars on his body of the fire and the scars on the heart of his mother's sad fate.
The child was raking and burning leaves in the yard, when in some manner his clothing caught fire.
The mother, watching the little one did not hesitate a moment, but rushed to his rescue and dragged him from the flames and beat, out the fire in his clothing. But in her anxiety for the fate of her loved one she did not notice that she was too close to the flames and her dress was soon a mass of flames. Before neighbors and passersby could rescue her, she was a mass of flames. When finally the fire was extinguished she was so badly burned that she died a few hours afterward from the effects of her injuries, but not until she realized that her son was safe.