BRANSON, MO — An Illinois woman died saving her 12-year-old granddaughter as a duck boat sank last week on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, the family says. Leslie Dennison, 64, of Sherrard, Illinois, was on the boat with granddaughter Alicia Dennison of Milan, Illinois.
The girl’s father, Todd Dennison, told the Kansas City Star that the 12-year-old felt her grandmother pushing her upward after the boat capsized.
Leslie Dennison was a dining services supervisor at Augustana College in nearby Rock Island, according to the Quad City Times. She was one of 17 people, including four young children and two teenagers, who perished when the boat sank during a storm Thursday.
Fourteen other passengers survived the tragedy, including an Indianapolis woman who lost nine family members, including her three children and her husband. (Get Patched In: Subscribe to free daily email, news alerts, Facebook fun and more from Patch)
When water began to fill the duck boat, Alicia Dennison’s mother told the Chicago Tribune the girl’s first thought was to grab life jackets for herself and her grandmother. The 12-year-old tried to pull the life jackets free from an overhead shelf, but they wouldn’t budge.
Alicia’s mother said the little girl felt her grandmother’s hands pushing her up, allowing her to swim free of the sinking boat through the murky water. “She said if it wasn’t for her grandma, she wouldn’t have made it … ,” Shaunna Cumberworth, Alicia’s mother, told the Tribune. “I have no words for what she did for my daughter.”
A spokeswoman for Augustana told the Quad City Times Dennison was a dedicated staff member at the school for 38 years. Her coworkers nominated her for the college’s highest employee services award, which she won in 2014. “We extend our sympathies and prayers to her family and friends during this most difficult time. She will be dearly missed,” Augustana said.
The ill-fated duck boat ventured out onto the lake despite a severe thunderstorm watch issued for the area 30 minutes before the tragedy.
The names of the 17 people killed were released over the weekend:
Image: A group of mourners pause for a moment of prayer and remembrance of the victims of the Ride The Ducks accident at Ride The Ducks Tours on July 20, 2018, in Branson, Missouri. Hundreds of mourners stopped by the location to pay their respects to the victims after a duck boat capsized in Table Rock Lake in a thunderstorm on Thursday. (Photo by Michael Thomas | Getty Images)
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