Grandmother saved 12-year-old during Missouri boat accident

The Associated Press

7 years ago

A woman writes a message during a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks Friday, July 20, 2018, in Branson, Mo. One of the company’s duck boats capsized Thursday night resulting in over a dozen deaths on Table Rock Lake. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

People pray by a car thought to belong to a victim of Thursday’s boating accident before a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks Friday, July 20, 2018, in Branson, Mo. One of the company’s duck boats capsized Thursday night resulting in over a dozen deaths on Table Rock Lake. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

People walk past parked duck boats as the walk to a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks Friday, July 20, 2018, in Branson, Mo. One of the company’s duck boats capsized Thursday night resulting in over a dozen deaths on Table Rock Lake. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Rachel Riutzel hugs Russ McKay as he looks at a makeshift memorial for his friends before a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of Ride the Ducks Friday, July 20, 2018 in Branson, Mo. One of the company’s duck boats capsized Thursday night resulting in over a dozen deaths on Table Rock Lake. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

BRANSON, Mo. — An Illinois man says his 12-year-old daughter told him that her grandmother saved her after the Missouri tourist boat they were on sank in a storm.

Todd Dennison tells the Kansas City Star that his mother, 64-year-old Leslie Dennison, had taken his daughter on a special trip to Branson, Missouri. They had just arrived in town Thursday night when they went out on the duck boat tour.

Authorities say Leslie Dennison, of the western Illinois town of Sherrard, was among the 17 people who died on Table Rock Lake.

Todd Dennison says his daughter told him that after the boat was submerged, she felt her grandmother below her, pushing her upward. He says “She said her grandmother saved her.”