OBIT: Walter Otis BARR, 1944, of interest in Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2008.  All rights reserved.
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WALTER OTIS BARR

Sick Man Put Off Train Here Dies in Local Hospital

  Walter Otis Barr of Parsons, W.Va., employed as a whip foreman of a carnival 
company, the Lawrence Greater Shows, died in the Hazel McGilvery Hospital at 
1:30 o'clock this (Thursday) morning.
  Chief of Police John Bittner noticed Barr, apparently helpless and very sick, 
on a Meyersdale street about 8:30 last Saturday evening.  The man was well 
dressed and of respectable appearance and showed no signs of having been 
intoxicated, but was so weak that he could at first not give a good account of 
himself.
  Officer Bittner took him to the borough lock-up and put him in a bunk to rest 
while he called a physician to give him necessary medical treatment.  The doctor 
advised that he be taken to a hospital as his condition was critical.  
Accordingly the officer removed him to the Hazel McGilvery Hospital where he was 
under the care of Dr. Glass, until he died, the cause of his death being a 
serious liver disorder which interfered with his blood circulation. 
  The sick man rallied sufficiently to tell that he had been put off a westbound 
B & O train at Meyersdale to be sent back to Cumberland on account of being 
sick.  In his coat pocket was a note from the conductor of the train to the 
conductor of the next eastbound train stopping at Meyersdale to take the sick 
man back to Cumberland.  Barr wandered away from the B & O station before a 
train stopped to pick him up, and was later found in a helpless condition on the 
street by Officer Bittner.
  In response to questioning when he had lucid moments, Barr revealed that he 
hailed from Parsons, W.Va., where he said he had four brothers and a sister.  He 
also told about his show connection.  In his pockets was found sufficient money 
to pay his hospital care and funeral expenses.  In his wallet also was a 
receipted bill for $350 for hospital services at Charleston, S.C.
  His relatives at Parsons were communicated with, but none came to see him.  
The authorities at Parsons also were communicated with and they stated that the 
Barr family were very respectable, but poor.
  The body was turned over by the hospital to Morticians W. C. Price & Son, who 
have received instructions to send the remains to an undertaking firm in Parsons 
for burial.

Meyersdale Republican, October 26, 1944