Death
When word of Buck's dire situation reached Texas, Dallas County Sheriff R.A."Smoot" Schmid wrote a letter of introduction to the local authorities for Buck and Clyde's mother Cumie, and a deputy sheriff provided money to help her cover the costs of the 36-hour drive to Iowa by Model-A. She and her youngest son LC arrived for Buck's last conscious hours. As his pneumonia strengthened he became delirious and finally slipped into a coma, from which he did not wake.
Henry and Cumie Barrow put off buying a gravestone for Buck. They were sure Clyde would follow him into death any day, and whether for practical or loving reasons or a mix of both, decided to wait for Clyde. Clyde liked the idea and suggested the epitaph to go over himself and his brother: "Gone But Not Forgotten."
On Buck and Clyde's shared gravestone, Buck's year of birth is incorrect. His mother gave the stonecutters their sister Nell's birth year for him. However, she had recorded the birth dates of all her children in the family Bible; there, Buck's birthdate is 1903.
Read more about this topic: Buck Barrow
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Ai! ai! we do worse! We are in a fix! And you’re out, Death let
you out, Death had the Mercy, you’re done with your century, done with God, done with the path thru it—”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“It is a strange, strange fate, and now, as I stand face to face with death I feel just as if they were going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—and my hands so free from blood and my heart always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me.”
—Roger Casement (1864–1916)
“It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that it happens all the time, we never see it.”
—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (b. 1926)