Age 23. 4811 Ridge Street, Richmond, MI. Born on 9/20/1919, St. Clair, MI. Died 11/30/1942 (Monday), of burns (death certificate). Ensign, U.S. Naval Reserve. Attached to Headquarters, First Naval District, Boston. In military training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under the Defense and War Training program of the U.S. Office of Education). Known as "Jack." Attended the club with Miss Catherine Collins, dead, and Miss Ivah Leffler (Born 5/12/1920. Died as Mrs. Ivah M. McKee on 6/22/1967, age 47. Last residence Amherst, NY), both age 22, both rooming together in Buffalo, NY, the latter escaped. Trio witnessed the big afternoon B.C. Eagles / Holy Cross Crusaders collegiate football game at Fenway Park. Were standing at the octagonal main bar in the cellar Melody Lounge when fire broke. Miss Leffler to Boston Police, 11/30/1942: "All of a sudden, I saw this flame. Somebody yelled, 'Put water on it,' and nobody did. And I shouted to Jack, 'Let's go'..." Escaped to the street with Miss Leffler, but the pair then discovered Miss Collins was missing. "Ensign Edwards disregarded his personal safety and re-entered the building in a futile attempt to find her in the raging holocaust. Badly burned, he was taken to a Boston hospital" (The Daily News, Batavia, NY, 11/30/1942). Grove rescuer Miss Nina Underwood, age 18 (Born 2/06/1924. Died as Nina J. Young on 6/27/1997, age 73. Last residence Westminster, CA), to The Boston Globe, 11/30/1942: "One young Naval officer had been at the club with his sister and his fiancée [sic]. He and his sister were brought outside and they pleaded that somebody find 'Tommy' as they called the girl. I think her name was Catherine Collins and she came from Buffalo." Case #12 of 39 in a landmark 1943 Mass General Hospital Grove burns study (no history obtained. Arrival: "marked shock." Burned nostrils covered with soot. "One of the earliest patients to arrive, he walked in. There was a delay before he received the morphine. The pain in his hands was so intense that he was unable to lie down but jumped up and down on the floor waving his hands." Burns 19% of body. Remained semiconscious and restless 1st day. Emergency tracheotomy. Died on 2nd day, pulmonary complications). Was single. Joined the Navy upon his graduation the past June from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (degree in electrical engineering). Went to Brunswick, ME, for three months' training at Bowdoin College, then transferred to M.I.T. Slender build (WWII draft registration, October '40: 5' 11," 150 lbs.). Parents Capt. John A. and Mrs. Blanche (Brown) Edwards, same address. Burial with military honors at City of Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, MI. "The ensign's father, a retired lake captain, said he had rejected the offer of the Navy for burial at Arlington National Cemetery" (The Detroit News, Detroit, MI, 12/01/1942). Middle name William.

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