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Fifteen-year-old Ethel M. Peck (b.1888) and her
fourteen-year-old brother, Willis W. Peck
(b.1889), perished from substantial burns to
their upper bodies. Their Sunday school teacher
identified Ethel by a pin the teacher had given
her and Willis was identified by trinkets in his
pocket. They lived at 2644 N. Hermitage
Ave in Chicago with their mother, Mary Williams
Peck (1864 –1931) and insurance attorney
Charles B. Peck (1858-), though I suspect Mary
and Charles were estranged. The children
had been born in Minneapolis and the family
moved to Chicago around 1896.
Their mother dropped them off at the theater then
traveled downtown on an errand. Willis and Ethel
promised to wait for her return at the entrance
after the matinee. Two hours later, Mary
returned and saw wagons carrying away the dead. Dr.
H. H. Steele helped her search the morgues until
both children were found the following day.
Their bodies were prepared for burial by
Johnson-Landis Undertaking and interment was in
the Williams family plot at the Lakewood
Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN. Rev. Dr. Leavitt H. Hallock of the
Congregational Church conducted the service.
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Willis Peck was one of three
Iroquois Theater victims who were students at the
Ravenswood School on N. Paulina. The others
were
Emma Josephine Reynolds and
Helen Wunderlich. Ethel was one of four
Iroquois Theater victims who attended
Lake View High School (The others were
Glen and Helen Bickford,
Helen Davy and
Raymond Pond.)
In the years after the fire
Ethel and Willis were not mentioned in the
obituaries of either of their parents.
Mary Williams Peck relocated to Minneapolis
where she opened a music lesson studio and
taught music at the
Graham Hall preparatory school for girls.
She did not remarry. Charles Peck
remarried several times.
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