AUGUST 10, 1944, VICTIM OF A FIRE
NORA JONES ABBOTT DIES OF BURNS AT NEBRASKA CITY HOME
Mrs. Nora Jones Abbott, 40, of Nebraska City, wife of Adrian Abbott and eldest daughter of Mrs. Alta Jones of Red Oak, Iowa, was burned to death Thursday in a fire which destroyed their home and all of its contents.
The accident happened shortly before noon Thursday when Mrs. Abbott accidentally put gasoline instead of kerosene in the kitchen range to start a fire. She had spent the earlier part of the morning canning.
She was enveloped in flames and her baby Larry, two and a half years old, who was in the kitchen, was seriously burned.
Everything was destroyed and gowns were borrowed from neighbors before Mrs. Abbott and her baby could be taken to St. Mary's Hospital. Mrs. Abbott lived until midnight
Nora Irene Jones was born November 4, 1904 in Coburg, Iowa to John and Alta (Van Kirk) Jones. She was one of eleven children. She married Adrian Adair Abbott on July 10, 1921 in Coburg, Iowa. She was the mother of 10 children, Lola, Martin, Everett, Darold, Wanda, Thomas, Ellinor, Carl, Guy, and Larry. She died August 10, 1944 at the age of 40. She is buried in Nebraska City, Nebraska at the Wyuka Cemetery.
Survivors include her husband, Adrian, 10 children, her mother, Alta, 9 brothers and sisters, and other relatives, a number of whom are in the service. She is preceded in death by her father John Martin Jones and one brother, Riley Elwood Jones.
(Nora married Adrian, the brother of her sister Bonnie's husband, Adam.)
Information found in Nebraska City Daily News and Press, August 11, 1944, found in The Lincoln Historical Society
LITTLE HOPE FOR EXPLOSION VICTIM
Mrs. Adrain Abbott, about 40, mother of nine children, was given only a bare chance to recover Thursday afternoon from burns she suffered in an explosion at her home shortly before noon.
The Abbott house, 1101 North Seventh Street, Nebraska City, Nebraska, was gutted. Mrs. Abbott suffered burns over four-fifths of her body and many of them were third degree burns, Dr. C. G. Zimmerer, her physician, said. He said plasma was to be administered.
Also burned was Larry, between two and three years old, but he was given a better chance to recover at St. Mary's hospital.
Fire Chief Claude Kastner said he did not know exactly what had taken place. Oil was said to have exploded, either while Mrs. Abbott was kindling a fire in a cook stove, or while she was using a small oil stove in the kitchen.
Mrs. Chas. Rawling, who lives a block south on Seventh Street, turned in the alarm. She said she heard an explosion, looked out her back door and saw flames shooting out both the front and back doors of the Abbott residence.
Everything in the Abbott house was destroyed by fire and neighbors believed there was no insurance. Among the charred articles that still was recognizable were a sewing machine, a washing machine, and a kitchen range, in which a fire had been laid with kindling which had not been burned. On the floor beside the stove was what had been a kerosene or gasoline can.
Mr. and Mrs. Abbott and seven of their children lived in the house. A boy is in the service and a daughter is married and lives elsewhere in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Abbott does garden plowing and other odd jobs.
Information found in Nebraska City Daily News and Press, August 11, 1944