OBIT: Leroy W. DUECKER, 1943, Saint Paul, Elk Lick Twp., Somerset County, PA File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library. Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/ ________________________________________________ LEROY W. DUECKER Leroy W. Duecker Unhappy Husband Shot Himself Domestic and Other Troubles Cause of His Suicide Leroy W. Duecker, a young man of the St. Paul community, Elk Lick Township, for some time employed as a policeman at the Kelley Ordnance plant at Cumberland, fatally shot himself at the home of his uncle, Henry S. Maust, Tuesday evening. Domestic and other troubles apparently were the cause of his rash act. Duecker, aged 28, and his wife, Grace Wyant, recently separated, she going to Berlin with the couple's 2-year-old son, to live with relatives there, while he made his home with his uncle near St. Paul. Duecker called at the Republican office last week and inserted a notice in The Republican that he would not be responsible for any debts contracted by his wife during their separation. On Tuesday evening of last week he called at the office of a Cumberland newspaper and informed a member of the staff that a man named Duecker, employed at the Allegany Ordnance plant had killed himself at his home in Somerset County, Pa. The newspaper immediately called up Coroner Dosch of Somerset for confirmation and particulars. The coroner had not heard of any such tragedy, but referred the newspaper to Deputy Coroner Beck at Rockwood. The deputy coroner also was ignorant of any such occurrence when questioned, but at 10 o'clock that night Beck received a call from Summit Mills, informing him of the fatal shooting of Duecker at the home of Henry Maust. Upon arriving there Mr. Beck learned that Duecker, upon his return from Cumberland that evening, had gone to his room upstairs, and a short while afterward Mr. Maust heard the report of a pistol shot and on hurrying to his nephew's room found him lying dead on the floor, dressed in his police uniform and with a bullet hole in his right temple. Duecker used a .22 calibre revolver to destroy himself. Before doing so he had written three letters which he left in his room, one addressed to his estranged wife, one to his uncle, Henry S. Maust, and one to a neighbor. Deputy Coroner Beck took charge of the letters but has not divulged the contents. It is rumored that Duecker was involved in a love affair with a young woman in Cumberland, which complicated his domestic affairs, but this has not been confirmed. The unfortunate young man's name was not really Duecker, but Keefer, a son of Lewis Keefer of Meyersdale R.D. 3, by the latter's first wife, Sally Duecker. After the latter's death, when he was yet a very young child, his Duecker grandparents took him to raise, and legally adopted him, so he became known by their family name instead of that of his father. W. C. Price and Son have prepared the body for burial. Funeral services will be held at the home of Mrs. Charles Miller in Summit Mills, at 2:30 p.m., Friday. Duecker was born March 26, 1915, and was aged 28 years, 3 months and 24 days. The fact that Duecker was accepted for military service and was to be inducted July 31, is also mentioned as a possible cause of his suicide. Meyersdale Republican, July 22, 1943