Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Larry Olson: First female lifeguard was a lifesaver at Pettibone Beach
A bench installed last fall is anchored to the foundation of La Crosse’s Pettibone Beach House. The 6-foot-long structure overlooks the Mississippi.
A plaque graces the bench. It remembers La Crosse’s first female lifeguard, Carol Kruezer Hemingway. It includes an engraving of Carol’s likeness along with these reassuring words: “Enjoy the river — I’ll be watching over you.”
It’s an appropriate message because “watching over others was something Carol did all of her life,” says Dennis Hemingway. His wife, a non-smoker, died at age 69 in May 2007 of lung cancer. While most of her cremains are buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, some of her ashes were put in the Mississippi River below Lock and Dam 6 at Trempealeau.
Hemingway, 72, a retired San Diego physician, shared: “La Crosse seems like a good place to memorialize Carol because she grew up here. We loved the water. We had a cabin near Lock 6.”
Rosemary Malin, a 2002 Onalaska High School retiree after 35 years as English and speech instructor, remembers with humble gratitude Carol’s work at Pettibone. It was Carol who saved the 13-year-old Rosemary’s life with the use of resuscitator equipment that had been added at city beaches in early 1957.
Rosemary recalls July 9 that year. Two adults from Chicago (one of them her cousin) were visiting the Malin family in Genoa. They wanted to go to the beach, and invited another cousin, Irene Guanella, 30, of Genoa, and Rosemary and her younger sister, Betty, to go along. While Betty was sunning herself on the beach, the other four went swimming. “We were holding hands doing circles in shallow water when there was a sand cave-in and suddenly we were fighting for our lives.”
She was told that at first Pettibone lifeguards couldn’t find her. They kept sweeping the water until one of them, Rod Lehrke, caught on to her bathing cap that was loose and hanging around her neck. Rod and Carol pulled the seventh-grader to safety “and saved me.” It was the first time the resuscitation unit was put into action in La Crosse, and Carol administered its use.
“I remember that both lifeguards had me on my back when I came to. I was struggling and terrified. I also remember how soothing they were,” said Rosemary.
As she was taken to then-St. Francis Hospital by a screaming ambulance crossing the Main Channel bridge, Rosemary thought: “I think I’m going to live. I’m not going to die.” Unfortunately for cousin, Irene, that wasn’t the case.
It is not surprising that Rosemary is thankful for the quick action of the lifeguards. It gave her the opportunity to become a teacher and today enjoy her retirement.
As Mrs. Hemingway in California, Carol’s life also was devoted to helping others. Her husband said: “She was an occupational therapist, and put her skills to work writing poetry and interacting with others. She conducted a writing class at her church, and taught the San Diego Pacific Beach homeless to write. She founded an ecumenical TV program, a good news venture about the happenings in the community with all religions, all churches. If there was a cause, she was there to help in a quiet way. She used her skills to raise our children, too. In our home, our family ate together every day. Carol made sure of this. Hers was a life of grace, dignity and love.”
Gar Amundson, director of La Crosse parks and recreation, says the bench at Pettibone is unique because it is the first of its kind in a local beach setting.
It goes without saying that beach-goers are thankful for Hemingway’s unique gesture that gives them someone to watch over them.
All stories copyright 2000 - 2006 La Crosse Tribune and other attributed sources.