Mrs. Mayme Anderson

Article taken from The Daily Independent, Murphysboro, IL, January 19, 1948

MRS. ANDERSON BADLY BURNED THIS FORENOON

Mrs. Maybe Anderson, 72, of 307 Mulberry St. was seriously burned this forenoon when her clothing caught fire.

As Mrs. Neoma Bartnek, a neighbor, ran to Mrs. Anderson's home at 9:25 a.m. to investigate a fire her mother saw burning there, the elderly woman dashed into the rear premises, her clothes in flames, screaming.

Mrs. Bartnek seized a quilt at the rear porch and enveloped Mrs. Anderson in it, smothering what fire was left in her hair. All her clothing had been burned off, excepting her stocking and shoes.

Neighbors rushed her across the street to St. Andrew's Hospital, where she received immediate emergency aid. Fire Chief Urba Hanson went to the hospital minutes after a minor blaze was controlled at the Anderson home. He took with him a special ointment used generally by doctors and firemen in emergency treatment of burns.

MRS. BARTNEK said Mrs. Anderson told her that her clothing caught fire from a burning pasteboard box. She said the box had been in her way while she was sweeping the kitchen floor, and she laid in on a stove, where it ignited. she said her robe ignited as she started to carry the box outside.

Firemen said the burns extended from the top of her head to below the bosom.

Mrs. Anderson's son, Heinie, former plant superintendent for the Brown Show Co. here and now general superintendent for the Selby Shoe Co. of Portsmouth, O. was notified shortly after the accident. He was being kept advised of Mrs. Anderson's condition by his father-in-law, Attorney I. K. Levy.

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The death of Mrs. Mayme Anderson, 72, last night was the first death from fire within the Murphysboro city limits since Urba Hanson took over as fire chief July 16, 1944, he said today. The officail said the city within the last quarter century has contributed its share to the average annual toll of 10,000 deaths from fire. The loss of life to this cause was that in the tornado of 1925 when a number of persons perished. The fire Department has no complete record of the loss, Hanson said. The worse fire death record in a single family here, as far as records show, was that in the Earl Turner home in East Murphysboro in the fall of 1927 when Turner, a Negro, and four of his children perished when their little home burned.

Mrs. Anderson was born in 1873 in Carbondale and had lived in the Jackson county area all of her life. She was married in 1897 to Henry Anderson, who preceded her in death in 1907. Survivors include one son, Henry B. of Portsmouth, Ohio, and one daughter, Mrs. Serena H. Burke, of East St. Louis, two sisters, Mrs. Daniel McCarty and Mrs. L. S. Ross, both of East St. Louis, and six grandchildren. One daughter, one brother and one sister preceded her in death. She was a member of the Altar Society and Charity Ladies of St. Andrew's Catholic church.

The body will remain at the Meyer Funeral home until the hour of services. Rosary will be recited at the funeral home tomorrow night at 7:30 o'clock. Funeral services will be held at St. Andrew's Catholic church Thursday at 9:30 a.m., the Rev. Father J. J. Taggart officiating. Burial will be in St. Andrew's cemetery.