BLEMKER, Samuel - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Samuel Blemker, age 65, Chief of Police of Huntingburg, near Jasper, Ind., father of Earl Blemker, Supt. of the Covington Community Schools, died Tuesday afternoon, July 2, of a heart attack moments after he had been struck in the chest by a man he was arresting. Mr. Blemker was born March 9, 1898 in Huntingburg, the son of Edward and Laura Blemker. He had spent his entire life in Huntingburg, Dubois County, He was serving his fourth year as Chief of Police there. Earlier he served nine years as the Huntingburg streets commissioner. Tuesday afternoon he answered a call to a home there where an intoxicated man reportedly was causing a disturbance. According to witnesses Chief Blemker placed the man under arrest for public intoxication and the man resisted arrest and struck the Chief a blow with his fist. Chief Blemker fell to the ground and the man stood over him with a knife. Blemker got up, disarmed the man, and began chasing him. Gus Mayo, former Huntingburg police chief, who lives near by, came to Blemker's assistance and subdued the man. Mayo said after they had placed the man in the squad car, Blemker cried out, grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. Death was almost instantaneous. Mr. Blemker is survived by one son, Earl of Covington; one daughter, Miss Doris Blemker, who lived with her father; one sister, Mrs. Tillie Shumacher of Broadlands, Ill., and three grandchildren of Covington. The body is at the Schmutzler Funeral Home in Huntingburg where funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday. Burial will be in the cemetery there.