Local youth drowns in lake

Special to the Mercury COUNCIL GROVE -- A Manhattan youth drowned in the municipal lake here Wednesday while swimming in 20 to 30 feet of water with a friend.
    Mike Cecrle, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cecrle of 1604 Pierre Street, Manhattan, slipped under the water between 2:30 and 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to Morris County sheriff?s officers.
    An official in Council Grove said this morning that Cecrle?s companion reported that Cecrle was beginning to get tired as he swam in the deep water. The other youth, Darrell Scott, visiting from Louisiana, reportedly went ashore to get a tire inner tube to throw to Cecrle.
    But by the time the Scott youth reached shore, he is said to have reported, the Cecrle youth had disappeared beneath the water.
    His body was recovered at about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

article from The Manhattan Mercury, July 23, 1971

Michael David Cecrle was born Feb. 23, 1952 in Tulsa, Okla.
    He was a 1970 graduate of Manhattan High School and was attending the Texas Bible College in Houston. He was a member of the United Pentacostal Church.
    He is survived by his parents, the Rev. and Mrs. Paul Cecrle; one brother, Steven Mark; two sisters, Elizabeth Ruth and Deborah Marie all of the home; his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Virgil I. Klapp, Rochester, Ind., and his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cecrle of Walkertown Ind.
    Funeral arrangements will be announced later by the Courser Funeral Home

obituary from The Manhattan Mercury