Davis Alexander Palmer saved Myrtle B. and Evelyn M. Ritchey from drowning, Bradys Bend, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1980. During a severe thunderstorm at night, Myrtle, 71, and Evelyn, 45, were trapped atop their sedan in rising floodwater from Sugar Creek. Hearing calls for help, Palmer, 63, utility man, waded into neck-high water near the sedan with a rope attached to a life jacket and an innertube, which he threw to the women. Myrtle put on the rescue aids but was swept off the sedan. Palmer, who was holding the rope, moved along it to Myrtle and then grasped a nearby tree. Moving from tree to tree, he took Myrtle out of the floodwater. Palmer then waded back to near the sedan, threw the aids to Evelyn, and pulled her to him. They waded to safety.
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