BIRD, WHEELER

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, October 07, 2010 at 05:01:34 :

Independent Journal
Saturday, August 16, 1980
Page 4

Child Dies After Stroke

James “Jimmy” Bird, whose battle against leukemia was recently documented on television, died Friday, one day short of his 11th birthday.

He had fought against leukemia since age five. Doctors felt they had checked the cancer earlier this year with a bone marrow transplant at the medical center at the University of California at Los Angeles.

But Jimmy suffered a stroke and died at his home Friday.

He was featured in “Can’t It Be Anyone Else?,” a one-hour program on children battling leukemia that was aired on “ABC News Close-up” in July.

Jimmy was born in Marin and attended Granada, Bel Aire and Reedland Woods schools.

He is survived by his parents, C. W. and Isabelle Bird of Tiburon; a sister, Marianne Bird of Tiburon; two brothers, Chuck and Steven Bird of Tiburon; an aunt, Mrs. D. W. Wheeler of Yuba City; and numerous aunts and uncles in Canada.

A funeral is set for 11 a.m. Monday at St. Hilary’s Church, Tiburon.

The family prefers memorial contributions to the Center for Attitudinal Healing in Tiburon or the Leukemia Foundation of Northern California.