Rites Held for Nuns Killed in School Fire |
CHICAGO, Dec 4 - (AP) -Funeral rites for the first of 90 victims claimed by the fire which swept through a parochial grade school began Thursday in the church a few steps away from the seared hulk of the school building. |
Archbishop Albert Gregory Meyer sang a requiem high mass for three blacked-robed nuns who perished trying to save their young pupils in the Our Lady of the Angels School. |
Burial was in Mount Calvary cemetery. |
A mass funeral for some 28 of the 87 child victims will be held Friday in an armory in the northwest side neighborhood. |
One of the most tragic cases following the fire was that of Stanley Burda, whose daughter, Beverley Ann, 13, died in the blaze. Burda had an eye operation the day of the fire to remove a piece of steel chip. |
He left the hospital to be at his wife's side, but was warned by doctors that he must not cry - salt tears might scald the wounded eye and blind it. |
At the scene he broke down and the tears streamed down his face. |