Edna Clare Allen (Palmer)

The sad news was spread about town this noon that Mrs. Clark Allen had been found lying unconscious on her kitchen floor at about 11 o’clock by Frank Rodman who went there to take some green peppers. Their gas stove had been leaking for some little time and it leaked enough to asphyxiate her after she fell to the floor in a faint, it is believed. The neighbors were called and every effort made to restore her to consciousness but all efforts were in vain and the heart ceased to beat at about 1:15. Clark went to Omaha this morning and she didn’t go as she wasn’t felling well. She had been over to a neighbors about an hour before she was discovered by Mr. Rodman. Clark returned from Omaha before she passed away. Edna Palmer was born in this city July 11th, 1883, so was just past 43 years of age. She was the only daughter of Dr. and Mrs. E. A. Palmer, both of who are now deceased, and she leaves on brother, Dr. Carl Palmer, of Philadelphia. She was married to W. Clark Allen in August of 1902 and an only son, Palmer, survives her besides her husband. The news of her sudden death is a great shock to her many friends, not to speak of her husband and son, who were so quickly summoned into the house of sorrow. The date for the funeral had not been set this evening.

#2 Published in the September 16, 1926 Tribune, Blair, Nebraska

GAS FUMES ARE FATAL AFTER HEART ATTACK

Mrs. Clark Allen is Found Unconscious on Kitchen Floor by Party Calling With Vegetables

HOUSE FILLED WITH GAS

Suffers Heart Attack and Thought to Have Fallen Against Stove

Death followed the finding of Mrs. Clark Allen in an unconscious state on the kitchen floor of the Allen home yesterday, despite the efforts of physicians who administered oxygen in an effort to revive her.

Calling at the Allen home with vegetables at about 10:30 yesterday morning, Frank Rodman found the doors closed and on glancing through the kitchen window discovered Mrs. Allen lying on the floor. Gaining entrance through an outside cellar way, he discovered a gas jet open in the kitchen range, which he hastily closed, and then notified the neighbors of the lady’s plight. Physicians were hastily summoned, but after working on her for nearly three hours and using two drums of oxygen she passed away about 2:00 o’clock.

Her husband, Clark Allen, was in Omaha at the time of the accident and arrived home only a few minutes after the physician pronounced his wife dead.

Mrs. Allen had been a sufferer from heart trouble for several years and it is thought that she suffered a slight attack as she passed through the swinging door into the kitchen, and in falling had brushed against one of the jets of the range which flooded the room with gas fumes which she breathed for some time before being found. Had she been discovered fifteen or twenty minutes sooner her life could undoubtedly have been saved.

Mrs. Allen was about 43 years of age and had been a resident of Blair all her life, having been a daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. E.A. Palmer, Dr. Palmer being a pioneer dentist of this city. She was married to Clark Allen and besides the husband leaves one son, Palmer, and one brother, Carl Palmer, who lives in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Allen was among Blair’s most popular women, and numbered her friends by the score. She was of a jolly disposition and was the life of every function in which she participated. As an entertainer, she was a royal hostess and will be sadly missed in the social circles of the city. She was a lover of animals, especially cats and dogs, and no stray dog or cat ever came to her premises that wasn’t fed or doctored and petted.

Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at 2:30 from the home, in charge of Rev. Underwood.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library ~~~

FindaGrave #69185444