Student, 14 Dies Of Polio In Hospital In Tennessee
A middletown girl stricken with polio while visiting her grandparents
in Tennessee died Tuesday night, six hours after becoming ill, it was
learned here today.
Marie Smelser, 14, daughter of Howard and Emily Smelser, formerly of 206
Franklin St., died in a Bristol, Tenn. hospital of lobar poliomyelitis,
it was determined following an autopsy.
A popular student in the ninth grade at Roosevelt Junior High School,
Marie was visiting with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Mel Smelser of
111 Sixteenth St., Bristol, when she became ill. Ordered to the
hospital by a family physician, she died six hours later.
She was a native of the Tennessee city, being born there November 4, 1938.
She belonged to the Calvary Methodist Church here and was a member of
its choir and the Youth Fellowship. Marie had planned to return
to Middletown in August to register for her sophomore year at Middletown
High School.
Here only survivors are her parents and grandparents.
Funeral services will be held at the Akard Funeral Home in Bristol at
10:30 a.m. Saturday. Burial will be in Bristol Cemetery in adjoining
Virginia.
Source: The Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Thursday, July 30, 1953
by
Vivian
Combs Moon
7 October 2008