Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 3, Number 5, DeMotte, Jasper County, 15 June 1933 — KANKAKEE RIVER TAKES DEATH TOLL [ARTICLE]

KANKAKEE RIVER TAKES DEATH TOLL

MISS VIRGINIA DICKEY DROWNS AT WATER VALLEY

A sorrow bringing tragedy brought to an end a pleasant picnic outing of the George Dickey family at Ahlgrim’s Park on the Kankakee river near Shelby last Sunday afternoon when Miss Virginia Dickey, aged 24 years and eldest daughter of the family lost her life in the swift current of the treacherous river. She had accompanied the members of ily and other friends to the park for a picnic dinner. After the meal had ended she with several others donned bathing suits for a swim. Some time was spent in the water. Portions of the river at this point can be easily waded but deep holes coupled with a swift current make it a dangerous place for any but the most experienced swimmer. She and a companion, Samuel Sirois, Jr., were wading the river at a point a short distance below the regular bathing beach at the park, when she accidentaly stepped into water over her head. Carried off her feet by the force of the current, she became panic stricken and was carried down the river. Sirois attempted to help her and succeeded in reaching her side, but her frightened struggles broke his grasp upon her and she was whisked beyond his reach. Before he could reach her she had sank beneath the water, and he was able to make his way to shore with considerable difficulty. Boats were immediately procured and every possible effort to recover her body was begun. A call to the Lowell and Schneider fire departments was sent in and the First Aid Squad of the Crown Point Fire Department was asked to bring the inhalator as quickly as possible in the hope that a speedy finding of the body would offer a possibility of resuscitation. Chief Pelton and members of the squad went at once to the scene and joined in the search for the drowned girl. Sheriff Lillian Holley immediately sent several deputies to Water Valley with instructions to render every aid in their power, and they immediately took charge and directed the search, in which members of the First Aid Squad, members of the Lowell and Schneider fire departments, Boy Scouts and dozens of friends and neighbors of the Dickey family lent their utmost efforts. M. J. Ahlgrim, owner of the Park, and one of the most experienced river men in Lake County joined in the search for the body. His knowledge of the currents and river bed enabled him to give valuable advice. Joseph Lump, a member of the State Fire Marshal’s force, who has had much experience in dragging for drowning victims went to the scene and assisted in the search which continued without intermission from Sunday afternoon until about 11 o’clock Monday evening when the body was found about four and a half miles down the river from the point she first went down. When discovered by Earl Sirois and John Hall, who were patrolling the river in a motor boat, the body was floating in the water with just the top of her head showing. Her arms were clasped tightly about a stick of wood which stuck up above her head. This, with the white bathing cap which she wore were seen by the searchers as a strong search light illuminated the surface of the river. The long tedious search ended, the body was brought to her home in Shelby and then to the Sheets undertaking rooms at Lowell, where Deputy Coroner Petrie viewed it and returned a verdict of accidental death by drowning. Virginia Dickey was aged 24 years and was the eldest daughter. She was a graduate of the Lowell High School, and numbered her friends by the hundreds. She had assisted her father in the general store at Shelby and was formerly the Shelby correspondent for the Kankakee Valley Post. She had personally secured hundreds of subscribers for the Post. She assisted her aunt, City Clerk Anna Dickey, of Crown Point for a time and later worked in the office of Hiram Johnston. She was a bright loveable girl and won the friendship of all who knew her. Her sad death leaves a grief stricken

home and a saddened community. She is survived by the parents, three brothers, Donald, Max and James, one sister Mary to whom the sympathy of the entire county is extended. The father, George Dickey is well known throughout the county, partly by long residence at Shelby and partly by the friendships he made during his race for the county commissionership, last fall. The funeral services was held from the Christian Church at Shelby on Thursday aftemoon, at 2:00 o’clock, Central Standard time, and interment took place in the family burial plot at Orchard Grove cemetery. Rev. Meyer A. Madsen, pastor of the local Christian church officiated as minister. The music was furnished by the Rumsey Family of Hessville, former members of the church and community of Shelby. Members of Miss Dickey’s Sunday School class of which she was teacher were flower girls.