Ronald Lee Bakewell, 14, schoolboy, died as the result of saving Richard L. Hickey, 11, from drowning, Brownsville, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1947. Richard jumped into the Monongahela River from the end of a retaining wall 16 feet high, in the wake of a stern wheel steamboat, which caused waves two feet high and surface currents about three m.p.h. to move upstream and diagonally to the wall. He was buffeted against the wall and then drifted six feet from it upstream. Although he had not swum in the wake of boats, Ronald dived from the sloping bank at the end of the wall and swam 36 feet to Richard, who struggled in turbulent water 13 feet deep. Ronald thrust him six feet to the wall, where Richard held to a recess. Saying he would try to return to the bank, Ronald stroked but drifted 80 feet in the opposite direction and sank. Richard held to the recess until the water calmed and then swam to the bank. Ronald’s body was recovered six hours later. 41125-3530
41125 – 3530
41125-3530