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Show FAMOUS LIFE SM OF E1ST0! DIES "Hero of the Lady Elgin" Rescued Seventeen in Wreck on Lake. BUR BANK, Cal., Feb. 7. Edward W. Spencer, first student life saver at Northwestern North-western university at Evanston, 111., who became known as "the hero of the Lady Elgin" by swimming seventeen times to a foundering steamer and bringing back as many survivors, died here early today after a lingering illness. He -was 81 years old. The Lady Elgin was wrecked off Wm-netka, Wm-netka, 111., with the loss of 279 lives, September 8, 1S60. Spencer was a freshman. fresh-man. Exhausted by cold and exposure, he collapsed on his seventeenth return and In his delirium repeated constantly, "Did I do my best?" The phrase became famous. Spencer's constitution was so weakened that he was forced to abandon his studies for the ministry and leave the university. univer-sity. An honorary degree was conferred upon him ten years ago and the class of 1&98 erected a tablet in his honor in the Northwestern university library. He never recovered his health and several years ago suffered a stroke of paralysis, which reevrred ten days ago. He is survived by his widow and three daughters, all residents of southern California Cali-fornia towns. |