Dennis Alan Gray, 18, Ipava, drowned Friday afternoon in a strip mine lake in the old Camp Ellis army base area near Ipava which was stripped of coal by the Peabody Coal Company.
Gray and his younger brother, Gregory, 16, and a cousin, Michael Coleman, 17, also of Ipava, attempted to swim across the lake area and were about halfway across when the youth yelled for help and sank in about 30 feet of water. The accident occurred about 4:30 p.m. and the body was recovered about 8:15 p.m. by a rescue team summoned to the scene from Lewistown.
Coleman told authorities he attempted to reach Gray, but was unable to find him in the deep water. Gray was a 1965 graduate of VIT High School and on Monday had taken his physical examination for induction into the armed forces.
Funeral services were held Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the Ipava Presbyterian Church. The Rev. W. R. Giffin officiated, and burial was in the Ipava Cemetery.
He was born July 24, 1947 in Macomb, the son of Harold and Barbara Branson Gray.
Surviving are his parents and two brothers, Gregory and Kent, at home; paternal grandmother, Mrs. Eliza Gray, and maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Clio Branson, all of Ipava.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus