Eleanor Edith Beecher ^{1 2}

   FamilySearch ID: L813-76G.

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Census in 1940 in San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. ⁷ The 1940 census recorded renting a home at 675 Hayes Street in San Francisco: Charolette Beecher, 32, married, living only with her daughters, Kathaline, 10; and Eleanor, 8. They were living at the same address in 1935. Everyone was born in California. Charolette had no occupation.

2. Newspaper: The Californian: Marriage Licenses: JOHNSON-BEECHER - John William Johnson, 18, and Eleanor Edith Beecher, 17, both of Monterey., 31 Oct 1946, Salinas, Monterey, CA. ¹

3. Residence: on 31 Oct 1946 in Monterey, Monterey, CA. ¹

4. Obituary: Monterey Peninsula Herald on 4 Jan 1947 in Monterey, Monterey, CA. ⁸ Young, Expectant Mother Sets Herself Aflame Here, Succumbs

Mrs. Eleanor Johnson, a 15-year-old mother expecting a second child, committed suicide today by setting fire to her kerosene-soaked clothes in the home of her mother, Mrs. John Beecher, Harding and Broadway, Seaside, the sheriff's sub-station reported.

Only a few months removed from the status of child bride, Mrs. Johnson made a human torch of
herself shortly before midnight, after she had returned home from a drinking party with four young companions, authorities reported. Seven hours later, she died at the Monterey County Hospital, after she told doctors treating her that she had committed suicide. She was transferred to Salinas after receiving emergency treatment at the Monterey Hospital.

THIRD DEGREE BURNS
Death was caused by third degree burns about the head, and on the arms, chest, thighs, side, and abdomen. Most of her brunette hair was burned off by the leaping flames.

The sheriff's office received a fire call at 11:59 pm. Arriving at the Beecher house, deputies found Mrs. Johnson lying on the floor between the bedroom and kitchen, suffering serious burns. Her father and husband, William, had discovered her condition and wrapped her in blankets in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

There was a partly-filled gallon jug of kerosene sitting on the floor near the kitchen table. The girl's mother, Mrs. Kathleen Beecher, said the jug had been almost füll earlier in the evening. The sheriff's sub-station said young Mrs. Johnson apparently poured part of the contents of the jug on her clothing, set the jug on the floor, and then struck a match to her clothing.

CLOTHES IN FLAMES
Investigators found kerosene spilled over the floor near the kitchen table.

With her clothes aflame, the girl apparently ran across the room and fell near the stove, on a rug which was found partially burned. From there, deputies deduced, she either walked or crawled to the point in the room where she was found.

Mrs. Johnson was taken home from the drinking party at approximately 11:30 p. m., according to companions' statements to authorities.

The girl's husband, William, had seen his wife after she arrived home and had gone across the street to talk to her father, John Beecher. It was when he started to return across the street that the flames were first sighted.

Mrs. Johnson, born in San Francisco, had lived In Monterey six months. She is survived by a daughter, Margaret, one year old; her husband; her father and mother, and a sister, Kathleen. Funeral services will be held at the T. A Dorney home.
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5. Obituary: The Californian: Young Seaside Mother 'Human Torch' Victim on 4 Jan 1947 in Salinas, Monterey, CA. ⁶ ---
Young Seaside Mother Human Torch
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Victim Mrs. Eleanor Johnson, 16, Suffers Fatal Burns After Clothing Soaked in Kerosene Early Today, Sheriff's Deputies Report
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Soaked in blazing kerosene, 16 year old Mrs. Eleanor Johnson, who was expecting a second child, suffered fatal first degree burns early this morning at the Seaside home of her mother, Mrs. John Beecher, while her father attempted to smother the flames with a blanket, sheriff's deputies reported today.
Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Beecher, who live at Harding and Domingo streets in Seaside, she was visiting her parents with her husband, William Johnson, 17. Taken first to the Monterey hospital she was given first aid prior to her transfer to the county hospital here, where she died at 8:30 a. m. from burns on the upper torso.
Statement taken from the fatally injured girl, both at the hospital in Monterey and by Dr. O. H. Hull of the county hospital on her arrival, indicate evidence of a suicide attempt, district attorney's office reported this morning.
Kerosene Bottle Found
Sheriff's deputies investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal injury reported upon their arrival Mrs. Johnson was lying on the floor between a bedroom and the kitchen, wrapped in a blanket, and that flames were extinguished. They said that no fire had been started in the coal range, and that a half-filled bottle of kerosene on the kitchen table had been spilled on the floor near the table, but none had fallen near the stove.
Rugs in the hallway, to which she had crawled or fallen when the blaze started, were burned, sheriff's officers reported. Taken immediately to the Monterey hospital, where first aid was administered, she then was rushed to the county hospital by ambulance, the report added.
Gordon Campbell, deputy district attorney for Monterey, reported that statements taken from both of the doctors, who talked to the girl before she died, indicated she was despondent and had attempted to take her own life.

6. Newspaper: San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune: Child Bride Sets Herself Afire, 6 Jan 1947, San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, CA. ⁹ ---
Child Bride Sets Herself Afire
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Burns Are Fatal
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MONTEREY Cal. Jan. 6: A child-bride set herself afire Saturday and was fatally burned after an argument with her husband over her drinking with other men, police reported.
Four months' pregnant and already the mother of a year-old child, Mrs. Eleanor Johnson, 15, doused herself with kerosene from a gallon jug in her home and touched a match to her skirt when her husband accused her of being intoxicated.
Before she died in Monterey County hospital she shut off official speculation of foul play by admitting that she had taken her own life.
She set fire to herself, police stated, just after her husband ran across the street from their home in suburban Seaside to get her father, John Beecher, to bring parental authority to bear on the girl.
Johnson and Beecher saw the flames flickering through the kitchen window of the house but before they could wrap her in a blanket she had received third degree burns over her entire body.
She told sheriff's deputies and Deputy District Attorney Gordon Campbell of the investigating group that she had been out drinking with four other men preceding the family argument.

Eleanor married Unknown. (Unknown was born in , , CA.)

Eleanor next married John William Johnson on 31 Oct 1946 in Monterey, Monterey, CA.¹ (John William Johnson was born in 1928 ¹.)