Nation IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : 1944 Fire Victim Identified, Reburied

An 8-year-old girl who was trampled to death in a 1944 circus fire was laid to rest in a family plot 47 years after she was buried in an anonymous grave. Eleanor Emily Cook’s body was exhumed in Windsor, Conn., and transported to a cemetery in Southampton, Mass., where she was reburied beside her 6-year-old brother, Edward, who also died in the Hartford, Conn., fire. A family member was unable to identify Eleanor among the dead. Hartford Fire Lt. Rick Davey’s nine-year investigation of the fire revealed Eleanor’s identity. Eleanor was trampled to death by panicked spectators when fire engulfed a circus tent during a performance. The tragedy is known in circus lore as “The Day the Clowns Cried.”