FORMER BLAIR GIRL SUICIDES

The body of Mrs. Jessie V. Bigford, 54, of 6507 North thirty seventh street, Omaha, well dressed and apparently in the water for only a short time, was found in the Missouri river late Thursday afternoon a mile and a half south and east of Bellevue, Nebr.

Mrs. Bigford was the wife of Arthur L. Bigford, and both she and her husband were former residents of Blair. They had visited relatives and friends in Blair frequently since they moved to Omaha, and were in town a few months ago to attend a funeral.

Caught in the pilings erected by government engineers to alter the course of the river, the body was discovered by Charles Baker, a farmer living three miles southeast of Bellevue, as he wandered along the river bank.

Her husband gave financial difficulties as the possible reason for the tragedy. He reported to police he had taken her to the home of J. E. O’Brien, 3030 Titus avenue in Omaha, where she was employed as a maid, about eight o’clock Thursday morning.

Arriving home shortly before six p.m., the O’Brien family could not find Mrs. Bigford. They notified Bigford, who in turn notified police. He later went to the station and identified the body.

Bigford, formerly a railway employee, said he has been doing odd jobs of late, and that Mrs. Bigford had been supporting the family.

Survivors, besides her husband, are a daughter, Marian, a son, Edwin of Stuart, Iowa and a brother, Carl J. Hindley, Blair.

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

FindaGrave # 113534056