Sweeney, Emma Reese (d. 1909)

REESE, SWEENEY, SWEENY

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 10/5/2022 at 06:49:54

Burial Friday Morning
Body of Mrs. Sweeny Will Be Interred at Vandalia
Funeral services over the body of Mrs. Emma Reese-Sweeny, who was killed by her husband, Dennis Sweeny, early Tuesday morning, will be held Friday morning at 5 o’clock at the Church of the Visitation. Father Nugent will conduct the services. After the service the body will be taken over the Wabash to Runnells, where it will lie in state from 8 o’clock until 11. During this time an opportunity will be given the numerous friends of the murdered woman to pass and pay their silent tribute to her body. She was at all times loved and honored by the citizens of the place, who admired her for the cheery way in which she has always borne her troubles and supported her two children. After this ceremony is over the body will be taken to Vandalia cemetery and there interred. The bodies of the two victims of the shooting will not be buried together.
Relatives of Sweeny believe that he was insane and while they deplore the tragedy as greatly as do the relatives of Mrs. Sweeny, they say that Sweeny’s passionate love for his little girl, Katherine, who lives with her mother and whom he could not see because of the restraining order of the court issued at the time of the divorce, unbalanced his mind.
They feel that he went to the home of his former wife determined to commit the deed which would permit their souls to pass into eternity together. It is said that the man hungered for a sight of her face and a smile from his wife and his children.
Yesterday afternoon, the body of the dead man was carried by a delegation of miners from Newton’s undertaking parlors to the hearse. It was then taken to St. Ambrose and placed in a vault, where it will await the arrival of relatives before the final interment.
Source: The (Des Moines, IA) Register and Leader; Thursday, October 7, 1909, page 3, col. 2
Findagrave.com has both Emma and Dennis (surname Sweeney) buried at St. Ambrose Cemetery in Des Moines.