Mrs. Lizzie Brubaker Hoffer, 72, wife of Harry K. Hoffer, Lebanon R.D. 3, was found dead in a water reservoir on the farm of a neighbor, Clayton Behney, early Sunday morning. Her husband is a patient in the good Samaritan Hospital. According to County Coroner, Dr. A.H. Heisey, death was caused by drowning, but declined a verdict until after further investigation. A son, J. Mark Hoffer, with whom she lived, told investigators he heard Mrs. Hoffer moving about the house about 3 a.m. Sunday. He said she was not in her bedroom when he went to look in on her and he began a search of the premises. Behney, who joined the search discovered the body when the beam of his flash light fell on a white object in the reservoir, he told investigators. Mrs. Hoffer is a daughter of the late Cyrus and Barbara Smith Brubaker and attended the Lebanon Church of the Brethren. Surviving, in addition to her husband and son J. Mark, are these children: Victor B. Hoffer of Palmyra, R.D. 2; Mrs. Verna E. Lehman, Lebanon, and Martha I., wife of Earl Funk, Lebanon R.D. 4, Also surviving are seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Amy Ruhl, Lebanon R.D. 5. The family reported that Mrs. Hoffer had been despondent.
Lebanon Daily News - Monday, November 7, 1960