Burnett Peter Van Deusen (1913-1993) rescues boy from drowning.mp4

While on vacation in Georgia, Pete saved a boy who was drowning in the motel pool. The story was written up in the local paper, but no date was recorded on the clipping. The year was around 1963 and the location was the Holiday Inn, at 1810 Howell Mill Road in Atlanta, Georgia.

Newspaper:
A 3-year-old Macon boy who fell into a motel swimming pool in Atlanta Monday afternoon was saved from drowning by two bystanders, police said. The child, identified as Si Simmons, was seen floating face down in the pool at Holiday Inn, 1810 Howell Mill Road, by Pete Van Deusen of Fairfield, New Jersey, who jumped in and hauled the boy out. A physician who examined the boy, said he would recover."

Video transcript:
A 30 second interview with Pete was broadcast on local television in Georgia and a VHS copy of the interview was made.

Peter Van Deusen: "... You just act. The thing happens and you jump, or do whatever you have to do. I believe you have to think later, you don't have time to think. Its like when your playing ball, I guess, and if your pitching and the batter hits one straight back at the box. Its an instinctive thing to put the glove up to protect yourself, you don't have time to think, you just act first.

Interviewer: "How does it feel to be a hero now?"

Peter Van Deusen: "I don't feel like I'm a hero. I mean there were a lot of people mixed up in this. There was the woman that hollered, the man that gave him mouth to mouth, the rescue squad. It took a lot of us to really do the job. I just happened to be the one that was in the pool."

Person:
Burnett Peter Van Deusen (1913-1993) aka Pete Van Deusen; Magnetic Ink Salesman at Sun Chemical (b. November 10, 1913, Albany, Albany County, New York, 12208, USA - d. October 31, 1993, Montville, Morris County, New Jersey, 07045, USA) Social Security Number 058077827.

Person:
Silas Johnson Simmons II (born circa 1960) currently resides in North Carolina.

Notes:
I, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), found Si Simmons through his aunt. I Googled "Si Simmons" with "Macon" on Friday, November 7, 2008 and found an obituary for a Silas Simmons who died in 2001 in Georgia. It mentioned several people, and I looked through the Internet telephone directory but only found one with a telephone number, it was, Frances S. Gray in Medford, Oregon. I called her at 4:00 pm and she answered, and she said that her nephew Si was from Macon, and that he currently lives in North Carolina. She would have him or his mother call me. Both Frances S. Gray and Silas Johnson Simmons II never cared enough to call back.

Version:
This version is the full footage from the original transfer from VHS. The analog VHS version was input into a video card on a computer and stored in a VOB format . The transfer was done by a third party. All my attempts had the audio and video slightly out of sync. I then used the Microsoft Video software to add in the titles. I uploaded first to Google Video in 2008 which allowed me to download back as an mp4.

This version has 15 seconds of black dead air, then a silent bumper of footage of the hotel before and after the video. The silent bumpers were for the local news anchor to provide a voice over to introduce the footage.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Burnett
• Peter
• Van
• Deusen
• 1913
• 1993
• rescues
• boy
• from
• drowning