Barefoot Girl Hiker Finds Friends in Lima
Article taken from The Lima News, July 31, 1932
A drift on the rough seas of life, homeless and penniless, Miss Elizabeth Fletcher, 20, who collapsed in Lima Saturday after "biking" almost 200 miles mostly in her bare feet found a friend in Mrs. Lucy A. Sarber. Her feet blistered, cracked and bleeding, and her body worn with exhaustion and harassed by hunger, the attractive young woman applied for aid at a home in N. Jameson av.
Miss Doris Cangney, executive secretary of the Family Welfare-assu, was notified. She in turn called police and the girl was taken to the Red Cross clinic, where medical treatment was given and her badly blistered feet bandaged. the girls' condition Saturday night was such that she could scarcely take a step as a result of pacing the hot pavements from Portsmouth, her former home, to Lima.
Reluctant to divulge the details of why she was hiking, the girl finally revealed that she had lived with her parents in Portsmouth. She is one of eight children. Her father works 3 or 4 days a month at a steel mill. Food was scarce, money was extremely difficult to obtain, and so it remained for the 20 year old daughter to leave home. In town after town she looked for work, she explained tearfully, but none could be found.
Mrs. Sarber appealed for work for the homeless youg woman: Until someone in Lima or Allen-co provides her with a job, Mrs. Sarber said, the girl will be sheltered in the sheriff's home. Miss Fletcher is experienced in housework, she told Mrs. Sarber.
Offers of Aid Come to Girl Stranded Here
Article taken from The Lima News, August 1, 1932
Following publication in The lima Sunday News of the plight
of Miss Elizabeth Fletcher, attractive 20 year old Portsmouth girl, who is
being cared for by Mrs. Lucy A. Sarber, wife of Sheriff Jess L. Sarver, since
the girl collapsed on N. Jameson-av after having walked barefoot most of
the 200 miles from Portsmouth to Lima, a flood of telephone calls came to
the sheiff's residence sunday and Monday inquiring concerning the girl.
Condition of the girl's feet, blistered and cracked and bleeding from pacing
the hot pavemens, was imporved Monday. Ager her collapse in Lima while she
was searching for food, the penniless and friendless young woman was given
medical treatment at the Red Cross clinic and then turned over to Mrs. Sarver,
who issued an appeal for a home or a job for Miss Fletcher.
Stranded Girl Bids Farewell To Lima Folk
Article taken from The Lima News, August 2, 1932
Miss Elizabeth Fletcher, 20, Portsmouth girl who was stranded last Saturday in Lima and befriended by Mrs. Lucy Sarber, wife of Sheriff Jesse L. Sarber, waved a farewell to this city Tuesday noon, when she left with Mr. and Mrs. George P. Nelson and their two small children for the Nelson home in Detroit, Mich.
As a result of publication of the girl's plight in The Lima Sunday News, the Detroit residents called the sheriff's residence, and the girl accepted an offer to work in their home.
Miss Fletcher collasped in N. Jameson-av, while seeking food after she had walked barefoot most of the 200 miles journey from Portsmouth to Lima. After her blistered feet had been treated at the Red Cross clinic the girl was turned over to Mrs. Sarber.
Mrs. Sarber said she had received dozens of telephone calls inquiring concerning Miss Fletching welfare. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were visiting relatives in Lima and read of the case in The Lima and read of the case in The Lima News. They live at Beverly Hills Birmingham, a Detroit suburb.