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William Brogdon, and his bride Lucille Ernest (currently Lucille Brommelhorst), after their wedding in 1947.
Lucille Brommelhorst folds her hands in gratitude after being presented with a commemorative fire nozzle to honor her late first husband William Brogdon at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Spanish Lake Fire Captain Dave Dubowski presents Lucille Brommelhorst with a fire nozzle in honor of her late first husband, William Brogdon, at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
A fire nozzle in honor of the late William Brogdon sits on a desk in the Spanish Lake firehouse while a photograph of Brogdon is displayed on Oct. 5, 2019. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Lucille Brommelhorst speaks with Gregory Brown, chief of the Eureka Fire Protection District and member of the Backstoppers organization before a ceremony to honor William Brogdon, Brommelhorst's late first husband at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Gregory Brown, chief of the Eureka Fire Protection District and member of the Backstoppers organization shakes Lucille Brommelhorst's hand after she was presented with a fire nozzle in honor of her late first husband, William Brogdon, at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. At right, holding the commemorative nozzle is her daughter, Karen Hessel behind Lucille is Spanish Lake Fire Captain Dave Dubowski. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
William E. Brogdon, the son of firefighter William L. Brogdon, is pictured here in his high school portrait. He was killed at the age of 24 in a car accident in 1977. His father, William L. Brogdon, a firefighter, was also killed in a car accident while responding to a fire in 1960.
ST. PETERS — Lucille Brommelhorst has only fleeting memories of the day her husband, William Brogdon, was killed in the line of duty, leaving her to raise their three children alone almost 60 years ago.
“This is stuff you try to forget,” said the 95-year-old widow.
But one memory lingers — the two men who came to her family’s Spanish Lake home the next day handing her a check for $1,000. They called themselves the BackStoppers, she said, and she was the first widow their organization assisted.
“They sat down and handed me a thousand bucks and I said, ‘Oh my goodness, thank you,’ and they said they’d help me along the way if I needed help,” she recalled, her voice cracking at the memory.
But she didn’t take them up on their offer, she said. Instead, she picked up typing jobs at home to cover the bills. She had mortgage insurance, and her husband’s veterans benefits helped, too. She married the fire chief’s nephew about two years later. They had another child, Lori.
The BackStoppers lost touch with her, and she with it.
She has watched through the decades as it blossomed into the only nonprofit of its kind in the country, covering all of the unpaid debts, education costs and medical expenses for immediate family members of first responders who are killed in the line of duty throughout the St. Louis area and Metro East. That includes mortgages, car payments, home repairs, credit card debts, tuition costs and any other expenses that might come up. Even karate lessons for the kids aren’t out of the question.
Now, its original beneficiary is about to be back on its rolls as it prepares for its 60th annual membership drive this month thanks to the curiosity of a member of her late husband’s fire department.
Capt. Dave Dubowski of the Spanish Lake Fire Protection District used BackStoppers’ records to research his department’s only on-duty death and discovered Lucille is now living with her oldest daughter, Karen Hessel, 69, in St. Peters. He honored them at the department’s annual Fire Safety Week kickoff event Saturday, and told BackStoppers of his find.
The organization plans to start covering her expenses once more.
Hessel told her mother the good news Friday at their dining room table.
“They’re reinstating you, that’s the word (they) used,” Karen Hessel told Lucille.
She stared at her daughter for a few seconds bewildered, and said simply, “Really? … Wow.”
Brogdon met his bride through her aunt, who owned rooming houses in south St. Louis. He was one of her aunt’s tenants. They married in November 1947.
They moved to Spanish Lake, and Brogdon became a volunteer firefighter.
“He was so happy to have a family of his own, all intact,” she recalled, saying her husband’s parents got divorced and his siblings lived apart.
He was in the process of joining the department full-time in January 1960 when he heard the siren blaring from the fire department near his home. He was 33 at the time. A husband of 12 years. And a father of three: Karen, 10, Joan, 8, and William, 6.
Lucille remembers seeing her husband come down their stairs not long after 9 p.m. in his slippers, telling his wife he was going to a fire.
On his way, he lost control of his car and crashed along Redman Avenue and Highway 67, which is now Highway 367 or Lewis and Clark Boulevard. Fellow firefighters checking out the fire alarm call at a gas station saw their comrade’s car in a field from atop the building. The call turned out to be a false alarm.
“They came to the door that night and asked me if my husband was wearing his slippers,” Lucille recalled. “Then they took me to a hospital, sat me on a bench and said, ‘He’s dead.’ And that was it.”
Lucille said she had mortgage insurance, and that her husband was a veteran, so his Social Security benefits helped her with her children’s expenses. His final farewell included all of the grandeur of a military funeral.
Life for Lucille went on.
Her son, William, was killed in a car accident at the age of 24. Her second husband, Melvin, died in 1998. They had been married for 33 years.
“I managed to survive it all somehow,” she said. “You haven’t got any choice.”
Her other daughter with Brogdon, now Joan Lipman, lives in Chicago. Her daughter with her second husband, now Lori Wieprecht, lives in Chesterfield.
BackStoppers covers the expenses of a surviving spouse, but if they get remarried, those benefits typically stop. Should they be widowed once more, the organization steps back in. But no one ever informed the agency that Lucille had been widowed again, according to the organization.
And a lot has changed since the organization first assisted Brogdon’s family.
The $1,000 check that it once gave surviving spouses like Lucille is now $10,000.
In the coming weeks, BackStoppers representatives will meet with Lucille and her daughter to review her expenses, which include a Medicare supplemental plan and prescription copays. Should there ever be other expenses, such as needing a ramp for her house if the 95-year-old ever slows down enough to need one, BackStoppers will cover that, too, according to its Executive Director Ron Battelle.
The organization is currently assisting about 80 families with about 65 dependent children. In all, it has had more than 160 families on its rolls since 1959. It now provides about $1.5 million in assistance to those families each year, according to its website.
Brogdon’s former fire department is celebrating an anniversary , too. It is about to turn 75, which is what drove Dubowski to research its only line-of-duty death. He teared up while handing Lucille a bronze replica of an antique fire hose during the ceremony Saturday at the fire department, which about 30 people attended.
“Maybe it’s because there’s finally been a recognition for firefighter Brogdon’s sacrifice, because back then it was nothing,” he said. “A police officer or a firefighter dies and the family moves on.
“To me, it’s like he was finally recognized by the firefighters and the Spanish Lake community on the sacrifice that he made 60 years ago.”
To donate to the BackStoppers, call 314-692-0200 or visit www.backstoppers.org.
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Christine Byers is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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William Brogdon, and his bride Lucille Ernest (currently Lucille Brommelhorst), after their wedding in 1947.
Lucille Brommelhorst folds her hands in gratitude after being presented with a commemorative fire nozzle to honor her late first husband William Brogdon at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Spanish Lake Fire Captain Dave Dubowski presents Lucille Brommelhorst with a fire nozzle in honor of her late first husband, William Brogdon, at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
A fire nozzle in honor of the late William Brogdon sits on a desk in the Spanish Lake firehouse while a photograph of Brogdon is displayed on Oct. 5, 2019. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Lucille Brommelhorst speaks with Gregory Brown, chief of the Eureka Fire Protection District and member of the Backstoppers organization before a ceremony to honor William Brogdon, Brommelhorst's late first husband at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. Brommelhorst was the first recipient of aid from the Backstoppers foundation 60 years ago, when her husband was killed in a car accident on his way to a call. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
Gregory Brown, chief of the Eureka Fire Protection District and member of the Backstoppers organization shakes Lucille Brommelhorst's hand after she was presented with a fire nozzle in honor of her late first husband, William Brogdon, at the Spanish Lake firehouse on Oct. 5, 2019. At right, holding the commemorative nozzle is her daughter, Karen Hessel behind Lucille is Spanish Lake Fire Captain Dave Dubowski. Photo by Troy Stolt, tstolt@post-dispatch.com
William E. Brogdon, the son of firefighter William L. Brogdon, is pictured here in his high school portrait. He was killed at the age of 24 in a car accident in 1977. His father, William L. Brogdon, a firefighter, was also killed in a car accident while responding to a fire in 1960.
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