St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 2

Nationstate Monday, June 9, 1997 35 years linger al 2A St Cloud Times mi aaa mpnu. wmmm. mm i it ''J ft 9k. Woman thinks baby declared dead after 1962 birth is alive SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) After spending the day sedated during labor, Marlys Thomas caught a brief glimpse of her newborn baby's tiny pink feet and wiggling legs.

"I felt so much joy I couldn't believe it I couldn't take my eyes off her. Then I went back to sleep," she said, her eyes nearly closing as she remembered the day 35 years ago. When she awoke, she scanned the delivery room for a bassinet, but saw none. Then the doctor told her that her baby had died. "I thought my heart was being torn out I can still feel it, even now." Now, Thomas believes her daughter ms snatched from the Worthington, hospital where she was born June 12, 1962, and is alive today.

She says missing or confusing documents and puzzling events over the years drove her to have her baby's grave dug up this winter. Tests showed that the tiny bone fragments did not match her DNA. "I knew there was something wrong from the very Thomas, 55, said in her Sioux Falls home full of intricate handmade dolls and crochet work. "I just feel that my daughter was adopted out and that she's out there." Thomas was 20 and seven months pregnant when she separated from her husband, Laton Gross, and went to live with her mother in the tiny town of Bigelow, Minn. Two months later, Mary Agnes Gross was born at Worthington Municipal Hospital, weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces.

After Thomas was told her baby had died, she insisted on seeing her firstborn child. "The baby didn't look dead to me," she said, recalling that the baby was pink. "She looked like she was sleeping. She had gobs of dark hair." Hospitalized for a week after delivery, Thomas did not go to the funeral home or burial. But her now-deceased mother and a friend saw a small, fair-haired baby in the casket and her mother went to the burial, "so I had to believe that my baby was dead." Three months later, Thomas said, someone mailed her a studio-taken portrait of a family with a dark-haired infant propped up on a table.

She believes the family in the picture, which has since been lost, adopted her baby. After moving to Pierre later that year, Thomas returned to visit Worthington and see a headstone a friend bought for Mary Agnes' grave at St Mary's Cemetery. "I immediately knew they laid it in the wrong spot," she said, adding that it was just to the left of where she remembered the grave. "But I figured I would always know in my heart where she was buried." Thomas, who eventually remarried and had three sons, returned to the cemetery in 1993 to find another headstone at the spot where she felt Mary Agnes' should have been in the first place. The new headstone was for Pamela Rae Dickey, who also had been born June 12, 1962 at the Worthington hospital, and died early the next day.

Cemetery records showed that Pamela Rae had been buried at St. Mary's, but Thomas said neither the church nor the caretaker had any records of her baby. Benson Funeral Home had a funeral record showing Mary Agnes' burial was at 4 p.m., but the home did not have a burial permit or record of who paid for the burial or the casket Her next stop was the hospital After looking at the labor record showing the baby had good color and a heartbeat, Thomas concluded that Mary Agnes was healthy at birth. But the baby was given an Apgar score, a standard measure of a newborn's apparent health, of only four AP PHOTOS Marlys Thomas, shown last month at her Sioux alive. The doctor told her that her baby had died.

Falls, S.D., home, believes her newborn daughter Thomas says missing or confusing documents was snatched from the Worthington, hos- and puzzling events over the years drove her to pital where she was bom June 12, 1962, and is have her baby's grave dug up this winter. The graves of Mary Agnes Gross and Pamela Rae Dickey lie side-by-side in St. Mary's Cemetery in Worthington, Minn. Gross' plot shows the signs of re-seeding after her remains were exhumed in November. DNA testing on bone fragments from the grave showed no match with the child's mother, Marlys Thomas.

of a possible 10, two for heart rate and two for color but none for muscle tone, respiratory effort or reflexes. Thomas believes the drugs she took during the delivery affected Mary Agnes' results. The death certificate said the baby died from lack of oxygen. Thomas thinks the small, fair-haired baby her mother and friend saw at the funeral home was actually Pamela Rae, who was born prematurely and had fuzzy blond hair. She believes that her mother actually attended Pamela Rae's burial because her mother noticed two crying strangers there, and Thomas recalls only one mound of dirt when she finally was able to visit the grave.

Were the graves mixed up? Does THE RIGHT BRANDS. RIGHT NOW. Super Buy Prices effective thru June 14, 1997, We reserve the right to limit quantities. no saies 10 aeaiers. ulates that Thomas is a bereaved mother whose memory is skewed.

Pamela Rae's mother, Margaret Dickey of Worthington, could hold some answers. She referred questions to her daughter, Mary Roth of Milford, Iowa, who said her mother has taken a test to see if DNA from the bone fragments show it is her baby buried where Mary Agnes' headstone is. But she said the results would not be known for some time. "This has brought a lot of questions for she said. Mary Rom recalls little of her sister's funeral because she was 5 or 6, but she believes it was held earlier in the day than Maty Agnes'.

Twist Family IV 26.4 oz. Thomas have reason to believe her baby was taken? Some explanations have been offered. Bob Benson of the funeral home speculated the babies were buried at different times, but that one hole was dug for both of the tiny caskets that might have been mixed up. "We're a small town. Knowing the doctors, knowing my dad (who handled the funeral), knowing the nurses, I can't see how that could happen, where all of a sudden a live baby would be taken from a he said.

Dr. John Stam, the pediatrician who signed the death certificates, doesn't recall either baby. Long retired, he spec Stock Up and Save 1 nlv 12.75 Hi Reg 1.49 PR Ii Reg. 2.59 Strawberry If tests show the bones are from Dickey's baby, Thomas' attorney, Scott Hei-depriem of Sioux Falls, could not say if they would pursue digging up Pamela Rae's grave to see if there was a mix-up. "And of course, where are we if the DNA shows it's not the Dickey baby?" On the day after Memorial Day this year, Pamela Rae's headstone has a group of pink flowers on it.

Mary Agnes' headstone has nothing on it, but shoots of new grass are beginning to emerge where the grave was dug up. "That stone. I want it to stay out there till I get the truth," Thomas said. "I don't want them to take it away and say she never was." Size Bag Reg. $2.49 24 Pks COKE Diet Coke C.F.

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Box rjo Reg. 3.99 Northern 2 Liters COKE Diet Coke Stock Up Miracle Gro PLANT FOOD Spikes 6-12-6 Reg. 5.99 Irish Sprinq jmjC ISBSSSSl NAPKINS Today In History In A.D. 68, the Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide. In 1870, author Charles Dickens died in Godshill, England.

In 1940, Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II. In 1953, about 100 people died when a tornado struck Worcester, Mass. In 1 954, Army counsel Joseph N. Welch confronted Sen. Joseph R.

McCarthy during the Senate-Army Hearings over McCarthy's attack on a member of Welch's law firm, Frederick G. Fisher. Said Welch: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" In 1969, the U.S. Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren. In 1973, Secretariat became horse racing's first Triple Crown winner in 25 years by winning the Belmont Stakes.

In 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood. In 1985, American educator Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped in Lebanon he was released in November 1991 along with fellow hostage Terry Waite. In 1987, in a second day of testimony before the Iran-Contra congressional committees, secretary Fawn Hall said she had spirited secret documents from the White House because she feared they would fall into the wrong hands. Sen. Joseph Ft.

Biden Jr. of Delaware announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1992, Secretary of State James A. Baker III concluded two days of arms talks with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev without an agreement on deep cuts in long-range missiles. In 1996, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," said it was wrong for an investigator to have obtained secret FBI files on 341 people, including prominent Republicans, and President Clinton agreed with Panetta that an apology was called for.

To Advertisers Binnie'8 Rower Shop 10A Central MN Service Cooperative 5B Ciatti's SA Cinema 8B Clearwater Development 2A Colors Inc 68 Community Bio Resources 7A Coupon 10A David Qelter 5A Edward Olson DOS 4 A Matnew Hall Lumber 4B, 88 Model College of Hair Design 5A Mr Mini-Blinds 5A Northern States Supply 4B, 6B Pure Pleasure 48 Snyder Drug 2A Williams Funeral Home 4A CUSSIFEDUS: 8B-12B HSMT1 CT Town Country Some preprinted inserts are not available ii all areas because of limited quantities supplied by some advertisers. NOW OPEN I '-iMAfyruroiJ c-swi lVN nwvii. 120 11.5 Reg. 1.33 lerro I ANT II Official newspaper of Steams County and cities of St Cloud, Sartell and Waite Park. Established 1861, the St.

Cloud Times (ISSN 0742-7913) is owned by St. Cloud Newspapers a member of the Gannett Co. Inc. Published daily and Sundays. Principal place of business and address: 3000 Seventh St.

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