Karen was born November 22, 1942, and died Wednesday evening, September 6, in Council Bluffs while her parents were taking her to Children's Memorial Hospital in Omaha. She had been ill with leukemia for two years and had undergone a good many blood transfusions in an effort to halt the disease.
She is survived by her parents, and her grandmothers, Mrs. Hilda Schroeder of Aspinwall and Mrs. Lizzie Lamaack of Botna.
CARD OF THANKS
We wish to express our sincere thanks to our relatives, neighbors and friends
for the expressions of sympathy extended us in our bereavement in the death of
our beloved daughter, Karen. We also wish to extend our thanks to Rev. Israel
for his comforting words, the choir, and those who sent floral offerings. We
also wish to thank the blood donors and all those who assisted us in any way.
Mr. and Mrs. Orren Schroeder
Mrs. Hilda Schroeder
Mrs. Lizzie Lamaack
September 14, 1950, Manning Monitor
Sick Tot Dies As Train Blocks Way
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. Karen Schroeder, 7, leukemia victim, died in her mother's
arms here Wednesday night after her parents had waited about 12 minutes for a
freight train to pass a crossing, as they were rushing the child to a hospital.
The parents, Orren and Geraldine Schroeder of Aspinwall, said the child had been given 28 transfusions to combat the usually-fatal leukemia.
When she appeared to weaken late Wednesday, they started for Children's Memorial hospital, Omaha, Nebraska.
At a downtown crossing here, they found a North Western railroad freight train blocking their way. They said as they waited for the train to start, Karen stopped breathing. A doctor was summoned, but the child was dead when he arrived.
DISCUSS FATAL CROSSING DELAY
(The Register's Iowa News Service.)
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. Police Chief Earl Miller conferred Thursday with North
Western railway special agents to determine which train held up an auto at a
crossing here Wednesday night as a father was rushing his dying child to a hospital.
Karen Schroeder, 7, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oren Schroeder, was being taken to an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital for another of a long series of blood transfusions intended to prevent almost inevitable death from leukemia.
Schroeder said he waited at the Eleventh Street and Broadway crossing 12 minutes before the train pulled away.
Then as he started his car, another train crossed the intersection and he had to stop again. Mrs. Schroeder said the child stopped breathing during the first wait, and a doctor said she had died before he arrived.
Chief Miller said he wanted to find the length of the train, whether it was in motion or stopped for some reason, and whether it was a freight or passenger train.
Police told him there were no trains on the crossing when they arrived.
City Manager Oliver Comstock recalled that there have been arrests here of engineers or conductors whose trains have blocked traffic at railroad crossings.
"It is hoped this regrettable incident will point up the need for a viaduct over the railroad tracks at Broadway," he added. Broadway, Council Bluffs' main street, is a part of cross-country Highway 6.
The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Orren Schroeder of Aspinwall said the child had been given 28 transfusions to combat the usually fatal leukemia.
Karen Ann Schroeder, daughter of Orren and Geraldine (Lamaack) Schroeder and his wife Geraldine, nee Lamaack, was born on November 22, 1942, in the Manning Hospital and died September 6, 1950, at the age of 7 years, 9 months, and 14 days.
She became afflicted with leukemia two years ago and had been receiving treatments and blood transfusions. She had been taken to Rochester at one time in hope of checking the disease but without success.
Karen was baptized in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Manilla on August 18, 1946. She attended the public school in Aspinwall as long as it was possible for her to go and would have been in the second grade.
She is mourned by her parents, her grandmothers, Mrs. Hilda Schroeder and Mrs. Lizzie Lamaack, besides a number of aunts, uncles, and cousins.