Friends remembered: Jackie A. Wellington

 

 

Jackie A. Wellington, 77, of The Villages, Fla., died Aug. 3, 2016.  He was awarded the medal in 1954 for his rescue actions of Aug. 18, 1952, by which he saved a 12-year-old boy from drowning in the Penobscot River at Bangor, Maine.  The boy, a non-swimmer, was swinging on a rope suspended from a bridge when he lost his hold and dropped into the deep water.  Wellington, 14, jumped from a nearby pier and swam to him, but the boy pulled him beneath the surface of the water.  Wellington broke free of him, calmed him, and towed him to a low section of the pier, from which they left the water.