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Submitted: 2/1/16 • Approved: 2/2/16 • Last Updated: 3/26/18 • R785908-G0-S3
Missouri
PRIVATE 110 Ammunition Train 35 Division
World War I
December 20, 1897 - July 15, 1936
PURL DARNELL, OVERCOME BY HEAT, DIES
Kirksville War Veteran Stricken as VCC Men Fight Fire.
Purl Darnell, 38, Kirksville World War veteran and enrollee at the Veterans Conservation Corps camp here, died in a hospital here yesterday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock from heat prostration.
Darnell, whose home was at 901 South First Street collapsed while with a group of VCC men fighting a grass fire near here with the temperature at 113 degrees.
Darnell was not feeling well when the men started combatting the blaze, which consumed a meadow on the Albert Shumaker farm on Highway No. 63 one mile north of town. He was told to sit under a tree and rest.
His position was leeward of the fire, however, and the heat became intense. Darnell started to return to the VCC truck, which had been parked in the road nearby. He stumbled and fell.
Sheriff Charles A. Novinger arrived at the scene of the fire just as Darnell collapsed. The sheriff placed him in a car and rushed him to the hospital.
The funeral is scheduled for 10 o'clock tomorrow morning at the Summers & Son Funeral Home. Burial will be made in Llewellyn Cemetery.
The body is lying in state at the funeral home.
Mr. Darnell was born Dec. 20, 1897, the only son of William and Mary Ralston [sic] Darnell.
He was a member of Company C, progenitor of Company K of the Missouri National Guard here, when it was called for patrol service on the Mexican border in 1916. Subsequently he served in the army during the World War.
Serving overseas in the 139th Infantry, Darnell participated in the Vosges, St Mihiel, Argonne and Meuse battles. He was in the Meuse engagement when the armistice was signed in 1918.
Kirksville Daily Express
Kirksville, Missouri
July 16, 1936
Parents:
William R. Darnell (1868 - 1944)
Mary C. Rolston Darnell (1873 - 1959)
Photo contributed by Larry and Susan Olson lolson60@cableone.net
Contributed on 2/1/16 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 785908