Clark, Roy

Picher Oklahoma: Three lives were lost and several persons sustained minor injuries early yesterday morning when flames, supposed to have been caused by careless use of gas, destroyed the State Line rooming house, a two story structure of fifteen rooms. The victims of the fire were Mrs. Pearl Smith, 24 years old, and her baby daughter, Bernice Smith, three years old, whose bodies were charred almost beyond recognition, and Mrs. Ida Blackwell, 27 years old, who was suffocated. Before the fire was discovered the rooming house was doomed to destruction and every occupant of the building had narrow escapes from the flames. Many heroic acts were performed by the men who occupied the rooms and who made desperate efforts to save the women and children in the smoke-filled rooms. Clad in his sleeping garments and barefooted, Roy Clark, a machine man for the Blue Mound Mine Company, proved one of the most reckless of the rescuers. In a vain search for Mrs. Smith said to be his fiancee, Clark several times fought his way through smoke into the room which he believed to be the one occupied by Mrs. Smith. Believing that he had the body of his sweetheart, Clark carried out the unconscious form of Mrs. Blackwell. She died from suffocation. The building was built of wood and the flames rapidly filled the entire structure and within a short time it was impossible to gain admittance. The rooming house was owned by I. Harris of Picher. It was under the management of Robert Henderson. Henderson and his wife were asleep in a downstairs room when the fire was discovered. The interior of the building was all ablaze and firemen had to cut a hole in the wall to take them out. Although nearly suffocated it was stated tonight they would suffer no serious effects from the fire. The blaze is supported to have started in the kitchen. Whether gas exploded or a burning jet set fire to some kitchen furniture, is not known. It is believed that a low blaze underneath a coffee pot may have flared up early in the morning when the use of gas diminished. In some way the fire was communicated to the walls of the building and the blaze was quickly spread to the rest of the structure...Mrs. Smith is survived by another daughter who at the time of the fire was with her grandmother, Mrs. W. S. Chumley.

Pearl Smith, age 24, a widow, died in State Line Hotel at Blue Mound Oklahoma.