Aug. 18, 1962 - Seventeen children and their Sunday School teacher drowned today when a small boat they had taken on a picnic outing sank in Lake Talquin, near Quincy, Fla. Seven of the children were from a single family. Their ages ranged from 5 to 14 years old. The boat, operated by the Sunday School teacher, Joseph Bouie, 25, plunged under water about 300 feet from shore. The picnic group, all Negroes, was from the Blessed Hope Church near Quincy, a northwest Florida town about 20 miles from Tallahassee. Mrs. Alzora Green said she saw the disaster from shore. She said: “All of a sudden, the boat started sinking. It went down so fast. They just reached up their hands and went down. And there I was, just standing helpless.” Eleven-year-old Jerome Maples was rescued. He managed to seize the boat and hold on until a passing fisherman could reach him.
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