Many of you may remember a couple of years ago I performed a marriage in the Minolta Tower. I’m able to do this because of certain responsibilities with my church. I was recently speaking with an older man that had these same responsibilities years ago. We were talking about Dean Sullivan’s jump, and it made him think of the funeral he did years ago for a daredevil. He couldn’t remember who it was, but after some prompting, we figured out it was Karel Soucek.
Karel had survived going over the Falls, but ended up dying during a stunt in Houston. Anyway, he was from around Hamilton, and this friend of mine was asked to officiate at the funeral. These are his recollections:
That’s him… He was of Czech origin and was buried in the cemetery reserved for the Hill family, one of whose members went over the Falls in a barrel. It was bitterly cold when we buried him I remember… his mother came from Czechoslovakia for the funeral. His manager was a friend of [someone he knew]. He couldn’t do the funeral, so I was asked. As far as I can remember, the Catholic church would have nothing to do with it and so the family came to us through Ernie. The eulogy was short, as you can imagine, because I didn’t know him and it was hardly possible to say more than that he had a dream which he fulfilled. The ‘Red’ Hill family offered the grave site as a measure of respect for a fellow daredevil. The media were present but I disallowed cameras at the service itself.
What a small world!