Since the exact death date was not given, the date of the newspaper article was used. Published in Blair Democrat, June 11, 1912

MRS. GUY STOCKTON DROWNS

Like a clap of thunder, leaving the people stunned with wonder, the news came to Blair last Thursday afternoon from Norfolk telling of the drowning of Mrs. G. G. Stockton, wife of a photographer of that city, who with her husband had made her home in Blair for several years and was well known to all our people.

The particulars of the accident were very meager and diligent inquiry failed to elicit much information except that the report was only too true. Friday morning’s dailies confirmed the sad news in telegraphic reports from Norfolk and the many friends and relatives of the Stockton’s in this city were shocked and heartbroken.

The remains of the poor woman were brought to Blair Sunday morning and taken to the home of Mrs. A. O. Pound where they rested until afternoon, when short services were conducted by Rev. Sturdevant, and the remains then conveyed to Fort Calhoun for interment.

The following account of the accident is taken from the Norfolk News:

“A drowning tragedy marred Norfolk’s Fourth of July. Mrs. Guy G. Stockton, wife of a local photographer, had gone to the mouth of the Northfork river at a point where it empties into the Elkhorn, early in the day with her family for a holiday picnic. While wading with others in the river, she stepped off into a hole fifteen feet deep and lost her life. Her husband and Mr. Weaver, leader of the Norfolk band, were both near at hand and both leaped into the whirlpool in an effort to rescue the drowning woman. Mrs. Stockton tore Weaver’s shirt almost off his body and clutched her husband’s ankles in her desperate attempt to save herself, but to no avail. Both men nearly lost their lives in the attempt to save her.

“The two families - - the Stocktons and the Weavers - - had gone out to the river bank early in the morning to spend the day. After lunch, at about 2:30 o’clock, Mr. and Mrs. Stockton and Mr. and Mrs. Weaver went into the river to wade. The water seemed shallow. It was just at the point where the Northfork enters the Elkhorn. In fact they got out into the Elkhorn a little distance.

“In entering the Elkhorn, the Northfork river’s current creates a whirlpool. This whirlpool has dug a hole fifteen feet deep. Two feet from the hole the water is only knee deep.

“Mrs. Stockton’s little two-year-old daughter and the Weaver’s little son sat on the bank and watched their parents wading in the cool waters. Then they saw Mrs. Stockton drop into the whirlpool. She had stepped off the shallow bed of the river into the treacherous eddy.

“Stockton and Weaver screamed and leaped into the deep water. Neither man is an expert swimmer, although they can swim a little. During that tragic moment neither one knows just what happened. They were both striving frantically, furiously to save a life. And the dying woman was making a last terrible struggle to live.

“But the battle was lost. Mrs. Stockton sank into the swirling current and did not reappear above the surface of the water. When the body was found thirty or forty minutes later, it was entangled in a snag at the bottom of the river.

“Men on shore who had heard the screams for help ran to the scene in time to rescue Stockton and Weaver. A boat was secured and a search for the body immediately made. The little children on the bank of the river had witnessed the whole terrible tragedy. The bereft husband is beside himself with grief as a result of the shock.

“Mrs. Stockton was 25 years of age. She was formerly Miss Anna West, a nurse in an Omaha hospital. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. K. West, live twenty-five miles northwest of Herrick, S. D. she has two brothers and two sisters there, and one brother works on a farm near Norfolk.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stockton were married about three years ago. They came to Norfolk from Blair a year ago last May. One child, a little girl of two years, survives.

‘The funeral will be held from the home, 307 Park Ave., at three o’clock Saturday afternoon, Rev. Hammond of the Presbyterian church officiating.

“This was the twenty-first drowning in Norfolk within twenty-five years. Of this number, eighteen have been in the Norfolk river, always a treacherous stream, and three in the Elkhorn. The last drowning in Norfolk prior to this was July 7th, 1910, when little Gayl Reed lost his life in the Northfork.”