JOHNSON, HOGAN, LIVINGSTON

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, March 01, 2009 at 04:25:15 :

Marin Journal
Thursday, October 9, 1913
Page 3

Young Couple Drowned at Tennessee Cove

Tragedy in its grimmest form ended a day of pleasure last Sunday for Miss Susie Johnson of Sausalito and her fiancé, De Witt Livingston, a government employee, who, it is believed by the grief stricken relatives, perished by drowning in the tide swollen surf waves off Tennessee Cove.

Hope has lived in the heart of the mother that some miracle has preserved her daughter from death, from the fact that no incontrovertible proof that she sank in waves has been furnished.

Although no sign of the bodies has been discovered, a shoe such as the kind worn by young Livingston, was found on the beach near the cove which bore the initial “D. L.” It is a government shoe and undoubtedly belonged to the young man.

The couple were to have been married at the home of Miss Johnson Christmas day. This information, furnished by the mother, exploded the tentative theory advanced by some that the couple had eloped.

Mrs. William Heim of Kentfield, who was picnicking with a party of friends near the cove Sunday afternoon, was the first to notify the authorities of the catastrophe. According to her statement she saw a young man struggling in the water at the foot of a sharp cliff, one boundary of the cove. She obtained but a glimpse of him before he disappeared. Recalling that she had seen a young couple pass around the bluff into the cove a few hours before, she concluded that they had attempted to round the headland and had been dashed to death by the treacherous beachcombers.

Coroner Sawyer, whom she notified, then learned that Miss Johnson and Livingston had failed to return to their home at 5 o’clock.

Miss Johnson, despite the lingering doubt as to her death, is mourned by scores of loving friends in Sausalito. She had been employed for some time in the telephone exchange there and possessed a wide acquaintance. Her father was the late Otto Johnson, a well known Sausalito contractor. She lived at home with her mother, a sister, Mrs. Hogan, and three brothers.

A vigorous search has been prosecuted daily since the fatality by the authorities and a company of soldiers from Fort Barry, but as yet nothing but the supposed to have been worn by Livingston has been found.