Eugene T. McCarthy (1923-1946)

MCCARTHY

Posted By: Debra Scott Hierlmeier (email)
Date: 11/22/2008 at 18:45:57

Eugene Thomas McCarthy

Eugene Thomas McCarthy, 23, of Shelby drowned about four o’clock Sunday afternoon when he apparently slipped off a plank in a pond on the William Denning farm about 5 miles west of Avoca. McCarthy could not swim.

Eugene, accompanied by his brother, Donald McCarthy and Eugene, Michael, and Bernard Denning were bathing in the pond behind a conservation dam on the Denning farm in Pleasant township when the accident happened. None of the boys were good swimmers.

The body was recovered approximately a half hour after the accident by Manning Walker, a Shelby attorney. McCarthy fell into water from six to eight feet deep.

Dr. LaTona of Shelby and the fire crew from Oakland with the pull-motor equipment worked for more than an hour in an effort to revive the victim.

McCarthy was married to Evelyn Leinen of Portsmouth on August 2 of this year at St. Mary’s church here. For the past three years he has been farming the Harry Sarvis farm one and half miles south of Shelby.

Eugene attended grade school at St. Paul’s Parochial school in Defiance and graduated from the Hancock Class of 1941.

Besides his widow and his mother, Mrs. Thomas McCarthy; he is survived by five brothers; Joe of Omaha, Daniel and Donald of Hancock, Patrick of Kansas City and Tommy at home; two sisters, Katherine of Omaha, and Mrs. J. B. Hill of Kansas City.

Rev. E. J. Schuman, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church here officiated at the Requiem High Mass for the deceased Wednesday morning at 9 o’clock. Burial was in St. Peter’s cemetery at Defiance. Pall bearers were Charles Gross, Joe Wise, Eugene Denning, William Denning, Louis Leinen, and Fergus Burns.

From the Scrapbooks of Bessie Gross Gustafsen