Obit: Niemi, Brian (1959 - 1973)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Niemi, Oestreich

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 8/23/1973

Niemi, Brian (26 May 1959 - 15 August 1973)

Note: Birth date taken from cemetery listing

A neighboring county of Clark County again gained the grim statistic for a drowning death this past week when a rural Owen youth, Brian Niemi, 14, drowned in a public swimming area in Taylor County.

The week before the Niemi drowning, another Clark County youth drowned in Lake Arbutus in Jackson County. He was Michael Oestreich, 18, of Rt. 2 Spencer.

The Taylor County drowning occurred in mid-afternoon last Wednesday, August 15, after the 2:30 disappearance of Niemi in the waters of Miller Dam. Taylor County deputies recovered the body shortly before 7:00 p.m.

Services were held for Niemi on Saturday from the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Longwood with burial in the church cemetery.

Brian, the son of Mrs. Janet Niemi, Rt. 1 Owen, was an eighth grade student at the Owen-Withee Junior High School.

He is survived by three sisters, two brothers, all at home; and both maternal and paternal grandparents.