Joseph F. Cannon, 24, meter reader, saved Dana H. Kerrick, 9, and Francis J. Raponi, 6, from drowning, Providence, Rhode Island, February 7, 1948. Dana and Francis broke through ice on the Orange Street slip of the Providence River into water 12 feet deep 40 feet from a wharf. Cannon ran 250 feet to the end of the wharf, descended a piling, and swam to the two boys, breaking ice with his hands. Taking hold of them with one hand and grasping the edge of the ice, he began to work his way back in the path he had made. Ice broke off repeatedly, and they were submerged briefly five times before reaching the end of a rope thrown by men who pulled them to the wharf. Two men who had climbed part way down the piling lifted Dana and Francis from the water onto the wharf. Cannon had to be assisted from the water. He and the boys were chilled and fatigued but recovered.
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