Before New Year's Day, 1946, the
Dunns were a happy family, with
a new eight-room house and four
dump trucks accumulated in 20
years of saving and scraping for a^
hauling and contracting business.
Son Helping In Business
They were the parents of Jerry,
17; Daniel, 9, and Teddy, 7. An¬
other child was expected.
Jerry was learning to help his
father — hauling produce and
cement blocks. For the first time
in their lives, they were swimming
instead of treading water.
New Year's Day, however, was
the turning point. A sudden fire
destroyed the home they had
bought only in September. And
Jerry and Teddy were burned to
death.
Mr. Dunn, who had a heart ail¬
ment left over from football days
at Waite High School, and his wife
fixed up their garage. It's a cozy
place, with flowers on the table,
clean curtains and draperies and a
shiny floor.
But grief-stricken, he suffered a
nervous breakdown — three weeks
before another son, John Harold,
was born. So Mrs. Dunn nursed
her husband, supervised his busi¬
ness and tended her children.
Fatal Automobile Accident
He was beginning to recover, she
recalled yesterday, when Danny
was killed in an auto accident Feb.
25 while riding to* school with an
uncle, Claire Dunn, Waite High
School assistant football coach.
Three other children - passengers
also died in the crash.
Left with only her invalid hus*
band and her baby, Mrs. Dunn set
her jaw even more rigidly and wentl
on working. Suffering a relapse, |
Mr. Dunn needed medical treatment
and much rest.
And then Thursday afternoon,
when the garage was so hot Mr.
Dunn's bad heart couldn't operate
any more, he died, exactly one
month before the couple's 22nd
wedding anniversary.
"It all sounds like a made-up
story,'' Mrs. Dunn said yesterday,
looking at her spotlessly-clean
white shoes. Asked if she'd been
ill herself through all this trouble,
she replied, "I've had to be well.
rhere were so many things to do"
And she's not even thinking of
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