The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-08-20
DROWNED BOY
WAS DADS PAL
Family of Joseph Burr,
Drowned Tuesday After
noon, Mourns Loss.
ARE GRIEF STRICKEN
Mother Tells of Restless Night
Monday Night and Pre-
mOnitiOn of Evil.

Seated on a chair in the living
room of her little home in the rear
of their store at 403 Grand avenue,
Mrs. Genevieve Burl was being con-
soled by a group of her friends over
the loss of her sen. Just few hours
before Police OElcer Arthur Larsen
had brought her the news that the
body of her thirteen-year-old son,
Joseph, had just been recovered from
Lake Michigan south of the intake at
the foot of South street, where he
had fallen into the water and drown
ed. And from the moment she gained
the realization that her oldest son
was dead until the neighbors began
to gather and join the family circle
in the pretty little home, Mrs. Burr
sobbed for her Joseph. Philip Burr,
the father, had given up trying to
help his wife in her grief. His eyes
were bloodshot and occasionally a
sigh would escape from his lips as he
thought back a few hours until the
noon of that fatal day-Tuesday-
when Joseph had come with him from
their little fruit store at 155 Milwau-
kee avenue for dinner. Joseph was
unusually bright and cheerful Tues
day morning, it seemed, and had spent
the morning with his dad, just as he
had been spending most every morn
ing during the school vacation. Joseph
was his dads pal.
Mrs. Burr told how the night be-
fore she hadn't slept wink as some
thing heavy seemed to hang over her
head. She declared that she felt
something was going to happen, and
when the police officer brought her
the news her suspicious were con-
frmed.
The little circle recalled how Joseph
had come home with his dad at noon
and while dinner had been prepared
for him by his mother, he chose to
take only bite and be off again with
some of his boy friends who had call
ed to ask him to go swimming with
them.
The story as it was pieced together
from information given the police by
two of these boys-Chester Bros
trick, 16, IL N. Congress street, and
Jerome Beaupre, 10, 461 Pearl street
detailed how the boys had gone swim
ming at the beach, and then about
four o'clock had begun frolicking
about the rocks on the breakwater
10 was here that Joseph slipped and
fell. He struck his head on the
wooden plank ledge as he fell and the
two boys noticed that he struggled
for a moment before, he sank. Terror
stricken, the boys did not know which
way to turn. Not soul was near.
They decided to run to the police
Office and report the accident there.
Sergeant Max Kramer was at the
desk when the two boys, breathless
told that a boy had drowned. The
police patrol was ordered to the
scene with the boys acting as guides,
and Sergeant Kramer Immediately
notified the coast guard station and
called for Coroner Joseph Friend.
In a few minutes more every at
tempt was being made to recover the
body of the youth. After an hours
search, Acting Captain William Pratt
ton of the coast guards succeeded in
hooking the body in eight feet of
water, and rushed it to shore, where
for early thirty minutes three
coast guardsmen took turns working
artificial respiration methods, but all
IN vain.
The body was removed to the
Mischler's morgue while Coroner
Friend conducted an investigation. He
indicated that it was evident that the
youth had met his death accidentally
Joseph Burr is survived by his
mother and father, and two sisters
Genevieve, IL, and Irene, 8. He was
born in Kenosha, December IL, 1911
and attended school at st. Georges
and last year had spent his first year
in the Washington Junior high school
Funeral services for the deceased
will be held on Friday morning at
nine o'clock from St. Anthony's
church, with interment following at
St. Georges cemetery.