Henry J. Childs saved Major Whittingham from drowning, Leavitt Meadows, California, May 29, 1933. Whittingham, 58, printing company president, fell from a footbridge into water six feet deep in West Walker River 25 feet from the bank and was submerged beneath the bridge. He clung to a wire of the bridge. Submerged boulders, some rising almost to the surface, dotted the river. The water was swift and turbulent, and at the boulders it was churned white. Childs, 41, salesman, and another man on the bridge grasped Whittingham’s wrists and tried to raise him, but Whittingham became unconscious, slipped free, and drifted with the current. Childs, who was heavily clothed, jumped from the bridge close behind Whittingham, grasped him, and raised his head above the water. Extending his legs along Whittingham’s sides, he warded Whittingham and himself from boulders as they drifted 300 feet. Childs then grasped a branch that hung close to the water 15 feet from the bank, and he and Whittingham were swung by the current to water two feet deep eight feet from the bank. Men waded to them and gave them assistance. Whittingham was revived. 33101-2787
33101 – 2787
33101-2787