This is a true human-interest story that should have been told many years ago. It happened in the early spring of April or May 1949. The title of this story is:

One beautiful, warm spring afternoon in the spring of 1949 a group of high school teenagers decided to skip school and go for a joy ride, there were 6 to 8 boys and 2 girls. We were going in Jack Stout's new automobile that he had just received from his sister and brother-in-law, the Harry Litton's from Dayton, Ohio. The automobile was a big box-type sedan, a 1932 Buick, which looked like it may have been featured in a Gangster movie. We all met at a predetermined place and piled into Jack's car like sardines and away we went.

This was in the days when the Powell River was dotted with swimming holes up and down the river. Most of these swimming holes had a large tree with a rope or cable tied high in the tree, to be used to swing out over the swimming hole and plunge into the river. On hot summer days there would be quite a crowd gathered at "The Old Swimming Hole". On this particular day, we left Pennington High School, located in Lee County's southwest Virginia.
We left after lunch break, early afternoon. We were all sophomores, juniors and seniors. We drove over to Woodway and onto the old Dryden road to a place where the old bridge crossed the Powell River. We stood on the bridge for a while and watched the swollen, muddy river rush by below. The river was above flood stage, because of the heavy spring rains and probably 8 to 10 feet over the banks, just 100 feet or so up the river was one of those swimming holes.

Some of the group decided to wander down to the river's edge where a long cable was tied and hooked to a large sycamore tree. The water was so swift and rapid you could hardly hear yourself speak.
One of the young 16 year-old "Showoffs" decided to swing out into the river on the steel cable, but with no intentions of dropping into the river. The water was very cold at that time of year, and everyone was fully dressed.He pulled the cable high on the riverbank, held on and swung 60 or 70 feet out into the river. On his return the cable hit the water about 25 or 30 feet from the river's edge. This boy was in real danger! Falling into the rushing water would mean being swept away by the heavy current where he would have surely drowned. All the others were yelling at the top of their voices to hold on, hold on, hold on. One of the girls hollered out as loud as she could, HOLD ON, and I'll go get help.

The road we were near was an old road, used only by local farmers. The young 16 year-old thought his senior classmate might try to stop someone using the old road that may have a rope or something to throw out and pull the cable back to safety.
As he clung to the cable for his life, for what seemed like an hour or more, scared and growing weaker by the minute, he was hoping a large log would float underneath that he could grab and let go and ride down the river to safety.
As he prayed for a miracle, he saw his senior classmate pulling a large tree limb down the side of the hill above him. As he watched this sign of hope coming down the hill, all he could think to do was say a prayer of thanks to God.

When his classmate reached the river's edge she tried to reach the stranded youth with the large limb, but it wouldn't reach. Instructing the other classmates to create a human chain that could extend her reach into the swollen river, risking her own life, she waded out into the rapids with the tree limb. Finally the boy could reach the limb. Holding onto the cable with one hand, with all his remaining strength he could reach out with the other and grasp the end of the limb.Holding on tightly to the end of the limb, she slowly pulled him back to shore. He lay on the river's edge, cold, wet, weak, scared and shaking until he regained enough strength to make it back up the hill to safety. Everyone piled back into Jack's car and fearing the consequences for our action, we vowed that we would not speak a word about this Adventure to anyone, since we had skipped school that afternoon.

Two of those classmates have long since passed away, Jackie Stout and Ann Minton. All the others have remained friends throughout the years.

This story was to be told at a recent Pennington High School Class Reunion, as both parties were present. But telling the story proved to be too emotional. Now as I write this story some 50 years later, I can tell you that the 18 year-old Senior was Emma Wilder and the 16-year old Showoff was I, Kidel Baker.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Emma and the other classmates for their heroism and quick action, and to present this Plaque and Gold Medallion to Emma which is inscribed THANK YOU EMMA FOR SAVING MY LIFE Your Friend, Kidel Baker. I would hope that she would wear this small momento with pride as a reminder of what happened on that beautiful spring afternoon more than 50 years ago. I will be eternally grateful for the bravery demonstrated which most certainly saved my life. Not only was Emma an Angel, friend and classmate, she was a neighbor who lived across the street from me all our teenage years

*This article was printed in the Powell Valley News, local newspaper for Pennington Gap, Lee County, Virgina.
It was also printed in the Dayton newspaper, the top 50 out of 6,000.
Reprinted with permission from the author, Kidel Baker.