St. Maries Mourns

In what many hope will be the last chapter in St. Maries’ five-week string of woes, more than 1,000 people attended the funeral Tuesday for two drowning victims.

“We are grateful for their lives, for the time we had to share with them, as family, friends and acquaintances,” said Mormon Bishop John Gibb, his voice breaking and barely above a whisper.

Daniel Shaw and Jason Moore, both 17, were pronounced dead Saturday in Spokane, where they were flown after falling through ice in St. Maries on Friday. Firefighters struggled for an hour to reach the boys, but both lost consciousness and sank beneath the water. Efforts to revive them failed.

Hundreds of people fought back tears inside the Heyburn Elementary School gymnasium as family members and friends recalled the two boys. Dozens of their St. Maries High School classmates sat in the bleachers. The two caskets were framed by nearly 40 flower arrangements and the huge St. Maries Lumberjacks’ team logo.

“We know beyond any doubt that Danny’s happy, in a good place with people who love him,” said his uncle, Kevin Gibb.

“Danny would have wanted me to tell you to stop crying. He wouldn’t understand why we’re making all this fuss when there’s things to be done and places to go.”

Both boys were avid hunters and anglers, and very active in the St. Maries Mormon Church. Both were members of the Boy Scouts, members of which attended Tuesday funeral in uniform.

Shaw, who was working on his Boy Scout Eagle badge, was awarded the badge posthumously Monday.

A local scout leader pinned it to his shirt.

Many hoped Tuesday’s funeral will help heal St. Maries, a town of 2,442 battered by a series of tragedies in the past month.

In January, one-fourth of a downtown city block burned down, destroying three businesses and an apartment.

The February floods did their worst damage in and around St. Maries, inundating 42 businesses and more than 100 homes.

“We’ve had so many disasters here lately - you just keep hoping it’ll quit,” said Benewah County Sheriff Rodney Thormahlen, directing traffic to the cemetery.

The deaths of the two boys “was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said high school principal Jerry Bayley. “That’s when it really strikes home.”

The two boys, who had attended St. Maries schools all their lives, “knew every kid in the building,” Bayley said.

The school district Monday and Tuesday called in counselors, including some from Lewiston, to talk to distraught students.

“They’re telling them it’s OK to grieve, to be angry, to cry,” said Bayley. “We want the kids to let it out.”

The high school shut down at noon so students could go to the funeral.

“Sometimes a funeral acts as closure, that it’s over, and time to get on with life,” he said.

Wayne Schlappy alluded to the city’s recent tragedies in his closing prayer at the funeral.

“We ask a special blessing on this community,” he said, “that they will be able to overcome their burdens and afflictions, and be able to stand tall.”

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