OCR Text |
Show THREE HOURS IN POOL FATAL TO SMALL GIRL Esther Higgins, Daughter of Attorney C. G. Y. Higgins, Drowned Tuesday. Esther Higgins 0-year-old daugh. i ter of Attorney a.Jd Mrs. Charles G. Y. Higgins, drowned in the Provo high school swimming pool Tuesday afternoon- at 4:50 o'clock. She was under the water less than two minutes, although no one saw her sink to the bottom of the pool. At the time of the accident there were more than 15 women and young girls in the pooL She made no sound as she sank under the water. Drs. Cecil Clark, Garn Clark and Stanley M. Clark were called and gave first aid but declared life was gone before she was taken from the water. The lung motor from the fire department de-partment was rushed to the scene of the accident by Fire Chief Reed Boshard and Prank Taylor. It was operated for more than an hour but to no avail. It is the opinion of the doctors that the little girl became over exhausted ex-hausted while in the water and that she fainted before she could call for assistance. With a little playmate, Zclla Peterson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. A. Peterson, Esther came to the swimming pool shortly after 2 o'clock Tuesday afternon. They played around the water until 4 o'clock when the attendant Bud Shields ordered them out of the pool as the period for the smaller girls was up at that time. A few minutes later about 17 wo- men, some of whom had their children chil-dren with them, entered the pool. Zella and Esther also re-entered and were not recognized by the attendant. atten-dant. About 30 or 40 minutes later Zella complained that she was not feeling well and urged Esther to come up in the1 dressing room with her. That was the last anyone saw Esther alive. Less than three minutes min-utes after Zella had entered the dressing room, she was told that her playmate had drowned. Ruth Roberts, 14-year-old daughter daugh-ter of Director and Mrs. E. L. Roberts, was the first one to see the body of Esther on the floor of the pool. Standing on the diving board, Ruth noticed a body in the water. She screamed for help. Her older sister, Salina, who was standing stand-ing nearby, dove into the water and pulled the body out. Bud Shields, who was sitting in the balcony watching some of the; larger girls diving, jumped into thei pool from the balcony as Ruth screamed for help. .. From the fact that another young girl, Josephine Jones, had just dived into the very place where Esther's body was found, it is estimated esti-mated that she could not have been under the water more than a minute min-ute or two. Mrs. F. Clyde Palmer says that as she was leaving the pool for the dressing room she saw the little Higgins girl sitting on the edge of the pool and that it was less than two or three minutes later when someone rushed into the dressing room to tell of the accident. The Berg mortuary company took the body of the girl to the home of her parents. Esther Higgins was born in Fillmore, Fill-more, February 1, 1915. The fam-ilv fam-ilv lived in St. George for some time and during the past two years has been residing in Provo. |