Geraldine Highland, 5, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Byron Highland, 1837½ North 17th Street, Omaha, Nebraska, died Wednesday night at a local hospital from burns she received playing with matches in the afternoon while her mother was at a nearby grocery.

The mother, returning after a 10-minute absence, discovered Geraldine standing in the middle of the floor in the front room, screaming and trying to pull off her clothing in a mass of flames.

The child, suffering from first-, second- and third-degree burns covering her entire body, was taken to the hospital in a police cruiser car. The cruiser policemen received the call at 3:10pm and arrived at the house a few minutes later, at the same time as Dr. Werner Jensen, police physician, who ordered the child taken in the cruiser, with Mrs. Highland accompanying. The group arrived at the hospital at 3:17pm.

Mrs. Highland left Geraldine to watch over her baby brother, Wayne, 2 years old, while she went to the store, she said. She said she could not have been away from the house more than 10 minutes.

Mrs. Highland suffered burns on the hands, attempting to beat out the flames in Geraldine's clothing.

Geraldine's father, Byron, is an elevator operator in the Gatewood building at 9th and Douglas Streets.

Surviving, besides the parents, are three brothers, Byron Jr., 12; Robert, 7, and Wayne, 2.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 2pm at Leslie O. Moore mortuary. Burial will be in Fort Calhoun cemetery.

#2 From news article printed in the Thursday, April 12, 1934 Lincoln Journal Star, p. 1

OMAHA TOT DIES OF BURNS

Childish Urge to Play With Matches Satisfied

Omaha, Nebraska—Geraldine Highland, 5, Omaha, satisfied her childish urge to play with matches at her home late Wednesday and was fatally burned when her clothes caught fire. She died early Wednesday night in a hospital. The child secured a handful of matches after her mother had left the home for a brief time. One by one, Geraldine lit matches under a coffee can and watched them burn.

Ten minutes later, Mrs. Byron Highland , the mother, returned home to find Geraldine's clothes a mass of flames. Mrs. Highland quickly tore the clothes from the child's body and quenched the flames.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Bessie Goldman, a neighbor, had heard the screams of the child and had called police. Cruiser officers responded. Wrapping Geraldine in a blanket, they placed the child and her mother in the cruiser car and drove to a hospital without waiting to advise headquarters or summon an ambulance.

#3 Printed in the Thursday, April 12, 1934 North Platte Daily Telegraph, North Platte, Nebraska p. 3

CHILD DIES FOLLOWING PLAYING WITH MATCHES

Omaha, April 12 (AP) Childish chuckles of glee swung swiftly into screams of fear and pain at the home of Geraldine Highland, 5, of Omaha, late yesterday, when flames resulting from lighted matches with which the child was playing, suddenly enveloped her.

The child was burned so severely that she died in a hospital several hours later. A childish urge to play with matches had prompted Geraldine to climb upon a chair and take a handful from a box while her mother was away from the home.

When Mrs. Highland returned ten minutes later she found the child's clothes in flames.

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

FindaGrave #18175607