Age 22. 499 Hamilton Street, Southbridge, MA. Born 3/06/1920, in Southbridge. Died of carbon monoxide poisoning (death certificate). With his father operated Martel Cleaners (dry cleaning), of Southbridge. Was in a main dining room party of eight including Mr. and Mrs. Donat and Dorothy Ducharme, ages 29 and 25, of North Grosvenordale (Thompson), CT, both injured, with his wife Ruth C., age 21 (Born Ruth Louise Carey on 12/06/1920. Died as Ruth C. Mitchell on 2/06/2012, age 91. Last residence Cotuit, MA), four dead. His wife survived but was seriously burned. Group from the central Massachusetts-Connecticut state line area attended the B.C./Holy Cross college football game at Fenway Park, then after dinner elsewhere went to the Grove about 8 p.m. Were seated at a table to the left of the stage, near a side door leading to upstairs dressing rooms. Observed of his wife (Southbridge Evening News, 12/01/1942): "Near death in the hospital...Mrs. Martel is said to have knowledge that her husband is dead..." Corrected the next day in the same paper: "Mrs. Martel does not know that her husband is dead, and every effort is being made to keep this information from her until she recovers." One of 60 "probable identifications" inventoried Sunday morning by Boston City Hospital at Southern Mortuary, Boston (all male). From Southbridge to Exeter, NH, with his family in 1928. Was a graduate of Exeter, NH, High School. Returned to Southbridge in 1938. Married in 1940, in Southbridge. Survived by an infant son Geoffrey, age 6 months. His widow remarried in 1944 and lived until February 2012, at her death the second-to-last known surviving spouse of a Grove fire victim, at 69 years, 2 months post-blaze (after the non-present wife of victim William McLean, age 34, who lived an additional five months until July 2012). Widow was approached by Hub fire historian Charles Kenney, Jr., for an interview in 1992 (bostonfirehistory.org: "Somewhat reluctant to discuss Cocoanut Grove at all. Understandable since she lost her husband..."). Surname (with his wife) was misspelled "Martell" (with two "l"s) on the final official November 1943 Boston Committee on Public Safety master list of dead and injured (correct spelling on his death certificate). Parents Mr. and Mrs. Zenon R. and Mae G. (Theriault) Martel, Southbridge. Burial at Saint George Cemetery, Southbridge. Middle name Bernard.

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