Name Age Place of Birth > Place of Death Newspaper Publication Date Submitter
RATERMANN, Leo 55 Breese IL Breese J 28 Sep 1967 Linda Holthaus 

Leo Ratermann Killed At His Farm Near Breese Fri.

Leo William Ratermann, 55, of Breese R.R.., was killed in a freak accident at his farm two miles northwest of Breese Friday afternoon. Death was caused by suffocation about 4 p.m.

Mr. Ratermann had crawled under a corn picker to grease the machine, and as he started to crawl from beneath it, he apparently pulled on the machine for leverage and it tipped over on him. The picker, which weighs about a ton, fell across his upper chest, and with much of the weight across his body, he could not push the machine off of him.

He lay with his back on the ground with the heavy picker compressing his chest so that he could not breathe. He died of suffocation as there were no broken bones or serious injuries to his body.

When he did not come to supper his son, Dennis, looked for him and found him dead beneath the corn picker.

He was born at Aviston, the son of George and Bernadine (Peek) Ratermann. He lived on his present farm nearly all of his life, and his parents moved to that area when he was about four years old.

Ratermann was married to Bertha Timmermann in 1946 and she died in 1953. In 1959 he married Winn Bonvie.

He had followed the occupation of farming all of his life and was a member of St. Joseph's Sodality, Knights of Columbus, American Legion Post 252 at Breese,, and the Clinton County Farm Bureau. He served in the U.S. Navy for 3 1/2 years from 1942 to 1945.

Survivors are his mother, Bernadine, of the Helvetia Nursing Home at Highland; his widow; two sons, Paul and Dennis, both at home; four stepchildren, Regie Bonvie of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Anna Marie, Joan and Jerome, all at home; two brothers, Victor of St. Rose and August of Breese, and a sister, Mrs. Anna Kruep of Breese. He was preceded in death by his father who died in August, 1966, and three brothers, Paul, Edward, and George, the latter who was killed in an accident at the age of 18.

Funeral services were held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Dominic Church, with Rev. Henry Aydt officiating. Military services were held at the church cemetery.

The body lay in state at the Moss Funeral Home in Breese until time of services.

 

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