Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Gambrill, Terrie February 1953
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Diane Renfrow dianel14@gmail.com July 28, 2014, 5:49 am

Norfolk Journal and Guide,Saturday,Mar 7,1953
Norfolk - Five persons lost their lives as the result of fires occurring in the
Norfolk area within a 24-hour period last week.

Three small children died from suffocation in their smoke-filled tightly closed
small bedroom of a second-floor apartment at 902 Church street Wednesday night,
while their mother attended night school at Norfolk Division of Virginia State
College, and their father worked at the Post Office.

A flash fire of undetermined origin took the lives of a 79-year old woman and
her two-and-a-half year old great-grandson in the Rosemont community of Norfolk
county about 5:30 Wednesday.

In this fire the Disciples Church and its rectory next door also were destroyed.

The Church street apartment fire took the lives of Terrie,5, Tyron, 4, and
Lannie, a 17 month-old boy, children of Jerome Gambrill,28, World War II
veteran, and his wife, Mrs. Patsy Ann Gambrill, a beautician.  

Those who died in the county blaze were identified as Mrs. Minnie Ricks, mother
of the Rev. W. M. Ricks, pastor of the Disciples Church for 23 years, and
Clinton Ricks, the only son of John Lewis Ricks, 22, and Mrs. Willie Ricks,20.

Only minor damages were done to the Church street premises and the flames
touched the body of only one of the three children, Tyrone, the girl who slept
on the lower mattress of a double-decker bunk.  Both Terrie, who slept above
her, and Lannie, who lay in his crib, remained untouched by the flames.

Fire Captain J. A. Seymour said: “Undoubtedly the fire ate up all the oxygen in
the room.  That and smoke is what did it.”

The fire was discovered by the young victims’ father when he returned from work
at the Post Office where he has been employed for about 18 months, but the
discovery came too late to ave any of the children.

The fire captain said the children were dead before their father found them.

Captain Seymour and Detective Sgt. L. L. Jones blamed the fire on one of two
things: (1)a careless smoker or (2)one of the children playing with matches.

The bodies of the children had been removed before the mother returned from
night school where she had been attending for three years.

The aged woman and great grandson died in the flames which destroyed their home
at 1419 Albany avenue, Rosemont, and the parsonage next door at 1421 Albany avenue.

The firemen found the charred bodies of the victims close together amid the
ruins where the rear bedroom was located in the five-room house.  There was a
lighted coal stove nearby.  The room had neither  gas nor electric facilities,
and no one was home at the time of the tragedy but the two victims.

According to Norfolk county coroner, the victims apparently were suffocated and
then died from burns.  He added that the cause of the fire could not be
immediately determined.  He was not certain whether the blaze started in the
home or the church.

Since the bodies were discovered near each other but between two beds, it was
believed there was a desperate attempt of the pair to escape before being overcome.

Rev. Mr. Ricks, of 1319 Providence avenue, son of the dead woman, said his
mother had been in failing health and was recovering from the flue and the
child’s  father was at work at the Norfolk Coca-Cola Bottling Plant and his 
mother was also away at the time of the fire.

Mrs. Ricks, who was born in Severn, NC, came to Norfolk to live in 1943 when her
son began his duties here as pastor of the Disciples Church.  

The minister said neither the church nor the home was insured.

Additional Comments:
Calvary Cemetery

GAMBRELL, TERRIE     I11328     Section CALVARY ANNEX A-F, Block A, Space 3    0
   02/24/1953

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