CUNNINGHAM, Fern - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Wallace, Nov. 19. – Fern R. Cunningham, age 18, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie N. Cunningham and a senior in the Wallace high school, died at the St. Elizabeth hospital in Danville, Ill., at 4 o’clock Wednesday morning following an operation for appendicitis. Miss Cunningham was taken to the hospital last Friday and operated on the same day. She rallied from the operation but peritonitis which followed caused her death. The girl was born near Wallace on May 27, 1912. Her mother was Miss Alice Nolen. In addition to her parents she is survived by one sister, Lois, and two brothers, all living at home. The body was taken to Waynetown at Wednesday noon to be prepared for burial and was to be brought to the home that afternoon. Funeral services will be held Friday morning at 10:30 o’clock at the Wallace Christian church and will be in charge of Rev. John Servies of Crawfordsville. Interment will take place in the Wolf Creek cemetery south of Wallace.

The Wallace school was closed Friday morning, November 21, and its American Flag at half mast and the business houses were also closed from 10:00 to 12:00; even the whole countryside ceased its labors and united in the touching and impressive but simple funeral rites for Fern Cunningham, daughter of Lonnie and Mrs. Cunningham, living northwest of Wallace. She died on Wednesday morning, November 19, at St. Elizabeth hospital, Danville, Ill., of peritonitis on the Friday preceding. She was a senior in the local high school and her sudden illness, following her active participation in the athletic exhibitions at the recent school carnival, was a terrible shock to all her school and classmates. The crowd that attended her funeral filled the auditorium, the basement, the vestibule and even part of the church lawn of the Wallace church. Miss Logan, of Advance, Ind., sang "In The Garden", "Some Day He Will Make It Plain", and "Good Night and Good Morning" during the services, which were conducted by Rev. Servies, pastor of the church. During the reading by him of the obituary, the sound of a plane was heard in the distance, it came closer, the whir of the motor almost drowning out the voice; it passed over and before the reading was finished had faded away in the distance. This circumstance made the ceremony most impressive. Miss Cunningham is survived by her parents, a sister, two brothers and her sweetheart, Bob Claypool, all of whom deeply mourn her passing.