Mount Vernon Optic-Herald

The Labor Day holiday celebration in Franklin County was marred by the drowning death of a Fort Worth man around 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 6.
Eddie O’Dean Walker, age 48, formerly of Winfield, drowned in Lake Cypress Springs. He went under about 60 yards from shore and was not seen again. He apparently was responding to another person in the water who was in distress. “Witness statements tell us  that Mr. Walker, along with two or three others, jumped into the water to help another member of their party,” Scott Haney, Captain with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said. According to Capt. Haney, the group had been taking turns on an inner tube being pulled behind their barge. A member of the group turned over on the tube and came up indicating he was in distress. See the Sept. 9 edition of the Mount Venron Optic-Herald for more details.