The Death Of Annie Naylor

Annie Naylor: May 10, 1902 - November 10, 1912

     Annie's parents were Joseph and Anna Cahill Naylor of Runcorn, Chester, England. They married there in 1891 and came to Philadelphia to raise a family in 1892. They first lived at 3128 Rorer Street (currently Lewis Elkin Elementary School is on that site). Joseph worked as a foreman at the cotton mill at B and Tioga. They had 4 children: Andrew on April 10, 1893, Leo in 1894, Mary in 1896 and Annie on May 10, 1902. Mary died at age 3 on Christmas Day, 1899 of convulsions. Andrew died on May 24, 1911 at age 18 from Enteritis and gangerous colitis. 

     The family then moved to 3233 Rorer Street (between Allegheny and Westmoreland). Annie was a sickly 4th grader at Ascension on October 28, 1912. Nearby Sheridan Public School was off that day and some of the older students had built a bonfire in front of Ascension School. As the students were let out that afternoon, Annie's line passed by the bonfire. An ember blew onto her jumper and she went ablaze. The nuns and some of the students tried to put out the fire but it took a passing truck driver who heard Annie's screams to put the fire out with his coat. Some students ran to Annie's house at Rorer and Westmoreland to let her mother know what was going on. She ran to the school only to arrive just as the ambulence pulled away. She collapsed at the scene and was taken to the same hospital as Annie, Episcopal Hospital. 

     The October 29, 1912 Phila Inquirer reported the story and mentioned that little Annie was not expected to live......and she did not. After suffering for 13 days, Annie died on November 10, 1912. Her official cause of death was Toxemia and General Burns. Joseph and Anna's last remaining child, Leo, died in 1916. Joseph and Anna both died in the late 1930's, leaving no family to remember them or to pray for them. Please, if you have a moment remember the Naylor family with an Ave.