Barbara Ann Sippel, 10, school-girl, saved Joseph F. Burns, 8, from drowning, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, January 2, 1948. Joseph, who could not swim, broke through ice on Ginther’s Dam into water seven feet deep 25 feet from the bank. Heavily clothed and unable to swim, Barbara walked 18 feet on the ice from the bank and crawled on her stomach to the hole, which was three feet in diameter. Holding the edge with one hand, she grasped Joseph, who was sinking, by the arm and raised him. He clutched the ice with his hands, and she took hold of his wrists and tried to pull him out but could not. Joseph twice raised one knee onto the ice, but each time a piece of ice broke off under his knee. He got his knee on the ice again, and she pulled him from the hole and three feet toward the bank. She rose, helped him up, and aided him to the bank. He was chilled but recovered.
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