Obit: Heck, Lavern #2 (1948 - 1967)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Heck, Gehrke, Oldham

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 22 Jun 1967

Heck, Lavern (30 OCT 1948 - 18 JUN 1967)

Lavern Heck, 22 (I think they got the wrong age), son of Mrs. Vera Heck, route 1, Greenwood (Clark Co., Wis.), drowned about 3 p.m. Sunday when he stepped into an eight-foot hole while wading in Poplar River between Withee and Greenwood.

Clark County Undersheriff Walter Oldham said Heck was on a family outing and was wading with a cousin when he drowned. The cousin reached the opposite shore without incident, but Heck disappeared beneath the water after stepping into a deep spot.

His body was recovered about 4:15 p.m. by Donald Gehrke, Owen, after it had slipped from a grappling hook being towed from a boat manned by Undersheriff Oldham and Civil Defense workers and volunteers. Oldham alerted the Gehrke youth, who was swimming in the area and aiding in the search. After dirving twice, Gehrke brought the body to the surface.

The drowning was the third this year in Clark County. On April 2, a canoe tragedy on the Black River claimed the lives of two La Crosse residents.

Heck's body is at Georgas Funeral Home on Fifth street in Neillsville, where services were conducted at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by the Rev. W.C. Koehler, pastor of the United Church of Christ. Burial was made in the Greenwood Cemetery.

The youth was a 1966 graduate of Neillsville High School.