Obituary Record

Alvin Luke, 12 years old of New Orleans, was drowned Sunday afternoon in Bay St. Louis at Henderson Point, Miss., after he fell from a skiff. He was a member of a group from the State Band and Orchestra school of New Orleans that had gone to the Point on their annual outing.

After Luke, who lived on Mazant street near North Claiborne avenue, fell from the skiff, three lifeguards and other swimmers attempted to save him, and later dived for two hours in an attempt to recover the body. Divers were also summoned from the Coast Guard station at Biloxi but all efforts to find the body had failed early Saturday night.

Before the tragedy the boy had been warned to stay out of the water because during the afternoon he had cut his head on shell in the water while bathing. However, his family was reported to have given him permission to go out in a skiff with a man, whose name was not learned, and two sisters of the Luke lad. They had gone out in the skiff a block from shore and a mile from the picnic area when the tragedy occurred.

The body was recovered Monday morning about 10:30 A.M. after a search that had extended through most of the night.

Constable Herman Finhold of Pass Christian is said to have seen the body afloat in the water as he stood on the highway bridge at the same time it was sighted by Bill Lizana who was in a skiff looking for the body also. Mr. Lizana removed the body from the water and carried it ashore where it was turned over to the Lang Undertaking Establishment of Gulfport.

The prevailing drift had carried the boy a great distance from where the accident had occurred.

Young Luke was the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Luke, of New Orleans.

His sister, Miss Dolores Luke, 18, and their cousin, Marion Stritzinger, 16, said they accepted an invitation from a man whose name they did not know to go for a ride in the skiff. Young Luke, who was barred from swimming because of the slight accident he had suffered while diving, went along. They said they heard a splash after the boat had gone some distance from the shore, and looked around to see the boy disappearing beneath the surface.

Source: Sea Coast Echo 07/13/1937