VIRGINIA METZLER, 14, DIES SUDDENLY AFTER BRIEF ILLNESS

Girl of 14 Succumbs To Heart Attack Following Brief Illness

Virginia Metzler, daughter of Mrs. and Mrs. Don Metzler who reside nine miles north of Blair, was found dead in her bed at the home of Mrs. Joe Bandur in Herman where she boarded while attending high school.

On account of the snow blocked roads, Virginia had not been able to get home for the past three weeks. On last Friday the Herman schools were closed on account of a shortage of coal and a little later Virginia seemed to have contracted a slight cold which brought with it a high fever. Dr. Cameron was called, and he gave her medicine, but during Tuesday night she seemed to grow worse and the fever mounted and Mrs. Bandur gave her medicine as ordered. At four a.m. she gave her the last, and then laid down to rest and was up again before six only to find Virginia had passed away.

Had she lived until next June, she would have been fifteen. An only child, she was the idol of her parents and her place will never be filled.

After her death, Dr. Cameron phoned to Mrs. James Conety, a neighbor of the family, to break the word to the parents, but realizing that the roads were impassable, the matter was kept a secret until the mother could be taken to the daughter.

The entire countryside turned out with scoops from the east end of the road, and the Herman maintainer with W.P.A. workers started from the Herman side; in all around sixty men threw their combined efforts towards the opening of the road, and by noon the road was open and the parents were on their way to the side of their loved one. But before they reached her, the parents had made up their minds that she had gone, and the shock was thus to a certain extent relieved.

The body was brought to Blair on Wednesday afternoon and taken to the home of her grandfather, Patrick Healey. Arrangements for the funeral are not complete, but if word comes from an aunt in California or if she arrives, the funeral will be held at 10 o’clock Saturday morning from the Catholic church in Blair.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~