Florence A Smeal

Siblings Ten-year-old Gladys and six-year-old Geoffrey Blackman, escaped, along with Gertrude's sister, Florence Smeal. Their sister, Ethel age 13, was a victim of the fire. Aunt Florence Smeal and the three Blackman children were seated in the second-floor balcony. She got the two youngest to a fire escape and down the stairs to safety in Couch alley, but thirteen-year-old Ethel wasn't with them. In the years after the fire Florence Smeal never married but remained close to her Blackman niece and nephew.