Last survivor of ’06 quake dies in California
02/06/2009
Herbert Heimie Hamrol, the last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, has died, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Hamrol, who was 106, was just 3 when the quake struck on April 18, 1906, but still recalled memories of the event and the ensuring fire, which claimed more than 3,000 lives and laid waste to much of the city.
“I remember my mother carrying me down the stairs,” he said last spring. “He also remembered staying in Golden Gate Park while smoke filled the skies and rubble lay heaped everywhere,” The Chronicle reported.
Hamrol also had some sound everyday advice for getting along in the world, which he passed along to a Chronicle reporter in 2003:
- “Don’t spend every dime you get.”
- “Stay away from wild women.”
- “Wear a tie when you go to work, also a nice shirt.”
