REED, MILLER

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 04:37:56 :

Independent Journal
Tuesday, June 20, 1961
Page 1

Marin Boy, 5, Drowns In Napa County Lake

A 5-year-old Corte Madera boy drowned in Lake Berryessa, Napa County, yesterday while his mother swam desperately to save him. His brother and two sisters watched horrified from the beach.

Calvin M. Reed, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elsworth H. Miller of 37 Sonora Way, was on vacation with his family. They had been away from home only about two hours. Calvin, Laura, 10, Terry, 7, and Greg, 6, were all playing gleefully in shallow water at the beach’s edge. Mrs. Miller was further back up on the beach attending her youngest child, Kathy Miller, 2.

Mrs. Miller said everything was fine until she heard the youngsters yell that Calvin, who was on a rubber air mattress, was floating helplessly into deep water.

Calvin’s brothers and sisters couldn’t reach him. He was out too far. Mrs. Miller ran down the beach and into the water. Calvin apparently realized the mattress was floating away, and got off, thinking he could just walk back to his mother.

But it was deep water and he slipped in over his head before she could swim to him.

“I tried to reach for him under the water,” she said. “But he was down too far and I couldn’t get to him.”

By then some sun bathers farther up the beach were alerted. They raced to aid as his mother struggled hopelessly to save the boy. They were able to pull him up and take him to shore.

One of them began immediately to give artificial respiration. Mrs. Miller said there was a flicker of breath but he failed to respond.

He is survived by his step-father, a telephoto operator for United Press International in San Francisco, his mother, his brother, two sisters and a step-sister.

Funeral arrangements are pending.