The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-30
TRAGEDY IN HIGH SCHOOL ENHANCED
Suicide Teacher Buried Yesterday; Girl Pupil
 Tries to End Life

West New York, Jan. 30.-UP)-- Claire Engelbert, frail, 15-year-old blonde, poisoned herself early today four hours after the funeral of Will liam H. Lounsbury, AS, her high school teacher who killed himself when she accused him of seducing her.
 The girls mother, Mrs. Claire En- gelbert, heard her get out of bed and 20 into the bathroom shortly after midnight, then return to her room and start moaning. Rushing to her room, Mrs. Engelbert found her lying across the bed coughing, her lips stained with iodine from an empty two ounce bottle that lay on the floor.
 Mrs. Englebert's presence of mind in pouring milk down the child's throat while neighbors called police to rush her to a hospital at Wee hawken was believed to have saved her life. Her condition was reported good"
 The nights events intensified a drama that has absorbed this whole section and has disrupted school life here, especially since Louisbury supervised manual training in all the schools in town and his suicide, by 1as and explosion, had badly damaged the cooking room of the Memorial High School.
 Widow Claims Innocence
 Lounsbury's widow, mother-in-laW lodgs brothers and fellow teachers turned out almost in body for his funeral and Mrs. Lounsbury insist ed that her husband was innocent and that throughout their 2 years of married life ''he was the best husband a woman ever had"
 Lounsbury was arrested Tuesday after the girl had been questioned about the source of her spending Aloney. Her family is poor On the basis of her replies, Lounsbury was played under $5,0oO bail pending a hearing that had been scheduled for tonight.
 The girls name had been with held from the case by police until her attempted suicide. She was de- scribed as dark blonde, weighing only 85 pounds. Her mother blamed her act to undue publicity"
 Hospital attendants said the girl would not be in condition to ques- ton until this afternoon.
 LounSbury had been teaching here 20 years, since five years before the girl was born. He lived in nearby Fairview and his funeral was held in Union City, where he formerly lived. The Union City Rotary club, of which he was past president made the funeral arrangements.
 Seeks VindicatiOn
 Mrs. Lounsbury and her mother were dry-eyed throughout the ser- vice but afterward the widow said her only hope was for Lounsbury's ''vindication through the newspa- pers."
 He thought he was doing the right thing she said, but it's too late TOW to tell him that l would never have le1t ms Slue no AldtCeI what might have faced him. There is not a friend who knows Bill who does not feel as do. We have been married 9 years. He was the best husband a woman could ever have, He has been good to me and have the utmost confidence and faith in his integrity. know Bill is innocent of those charges"
 Lounsbury killed himself at a. m. yesterday, turning on ten gas jets jn the cooking classroom stoves. An ex- plosion, touched off by pilot light, blew out partitions in the building.
 The night before, his lawyer, Sam uel Hirshberg, had said that Louns- bury firmly denied the charge and hoped to prove his innocence at the hearings.