BURNS PROVED FATAL
Mrs. Mae E. Gamble Victim of Frightful Accident.
Had Attempted to Start a Fire With Coal Oil When the Can Exploded and Enveloped Her in Flames -- News Notes and Personal Mention
Mrs. Mae Elizabeth Gamble, twenty-nine years old, wife of William J. Gamble, an engineer at the Swift Packing plant, died at 11:30 o'clock last night at St. Joseph's Hospital as a result of injuries sustained when her clothing caught fire early yesterday morning. The body was removed to H. A. Sidenfaden's. Services will be conducted at 7:30 o'clock tonight in the undertaker's chapel, and tomorrow the body will be taken to Helena, Mo., her former home, for burial.
The dead woman leaves a five-year-old son and also is survived by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Shay of Andrew County; three brothers, Fred, Bert and Charles, and a sister, Nellie Shay.
The accident happened shortly before 6 o'clock at the Gamble home, Second and Cliff streets. The husband had gone to work and Mrs. Gamble's brother, Bert, a night employe of the Rock Island, was in bed at the house … that Mrs. Gamble was … the … a fire in the kitchen with coal oil when the can exploded. Her clothing was instantly a mass of flames and her brother, who was awakened by her cries, smothered the blaze with bedclothing.
Rare presence of mind was displayed by Mrs. Gamble … agonizing pain, for while her brother was putting out the fire to save the house, she staggered to the telephone and called for J. J. Byrne. The physician said today that her entire body was literally cooked.
The unfortunate woman became unconscious soon after reaching the hospital and never regained … Her mother came to St. Joseph from Helena yesterday afternoon.
Source: St. Joseph News-Press, 4 January 1912, p. 2, col. 1.
