Daisy Nell Kerr Rigsby

KERR, RIGSBY, LONG, CALLEN

Posted By: Dorothy Meierotto (email)
Date: 6/7/2002 at 10:54:26

A terrible Accident Which Costs a Life- At a early hour last Tuesday morning 8-15-1912 occured an accident which apalled our people and from the effects of which Mr. Fred (Daisy) Rigsby lost her life. Mrs. Rigsby arose at a little after six in the morning and started to prepare the morning meal and as the hour was a little late used coal oil from a three gallon can to urge the fire when the oil ignited and the explosion which followed threw the burning oil on her and in a moment she was a mass of flames. Mr. Rigsby who was still in bed heard the explosion and his wife scream and jumping from the bed he ran into the kitchen taking a blanket with him as he entered the room Mrs. Rigsby ran out into the yard through another door and ran almost to the middle of the road before he succeeded in over taking her and smothering the flames. Doctor Craig was immediately called and found the burns to be very bad. Her body was badly burned, the face escaping the flames. Her clothing was almost entirely burned from her body, but little of it remaining. She lingered through the day and passed away near midnight. Mr. Rigsby suffered severe burns about the hands and arms in his efforts to put out the flames. Mrs. Rigsby leaves to morn her untimely death a husband and a little daughter, a father, a mother, and four brothers and one sister. Mrs. Rigsby was born and raised at Bonaparte and has a large number of friends who sympathise with the relatives in her untimely taking away. Daisy Nell Kerr, eldest daughter of John J. and Nancy Callen Kerr., was born in Bonaparte, Iowa, July 30, 1878 and died in Keosauqua, Iowa, August 15, 1912, aged 34 years and 16 days. All her early life was spent in her native town where she united with the Baptist Church March 13, 1896 and graduated from the public schools of that place the same year. Her loveable character won for her a host of friends in the home of her girlhood where she continued to reside until her marriage to Mr. Fred Rigsby, February 20, 1906, since which time she has resided at Keosauqua. On December 21, 1908, little Marjorie Roxanna was born to Mr. and Mrs. Rigsby, the orphaning of whom at the tender age of three seemed to be the chief burden of the dying mothers fears, yet to protect whose little life, she fled all aflame that she might be the only one to feel it's fiery fangs. A cheerful, constant friend; a loyal unselfish wife and mother; a neighbor in need and indeed, in life and in death she saught to follow the footsteps of Him who gave his life for others. Besides her husband and little daughter, her father and mother, she leaves one sister, Mrs. William Long of Bonaparte, Iowa, and four brothers, A.C. Kerr of Chicago, George M. and Wayne Kerr of Bonaparte and W. B. Kerr of Charleston, Washington, all of whom save the last mentioned were present at the funeral and are joined in mourning by a host of friends who knew and loved her. Funeral services were held at her home in Bonaparte conducted by Rev. T. L. Smith of the Baptist Church assisted by Rev. Allison of the Christian Church with interment in the Bonaparte Cemetery.