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Ardent swimmer, 81, drowns in gulf
By ALEX LEARY © St. Petersburg Times, published April 18, 2001 CRYSTAL RIVER -- Nothing, not even old age, kept Mary McPherson from one of her simple pleasures, a swim in the gulf. So it was no surprise when McPherson took a dip Monday night while her son and his wife, who were visiting from Ohio, snapped pictures of the sunset at Fort Island Gulf Beach. "For 81, she was very active," Bob McPherson said Tuesday. But he sensed something was wrong when his mother did not return from the water. "I didn't see her walking out and thought maybe she went to the bathroom." Authorities say Mary McPherson, a resident of Crystal River for 25 years, drowned. Her son says she died doing something she loved, but he is convinced his mother must have had a heart attack. She was too good a swimmer to have simply drowned, he said. McPherson, 54, said his mother went into the water around 7:20 p.m., and he kept checking on her periodically. At one point, another beachgoer saw her near the south jetty, and McPherson walked over to find her. He found his mother in the water, unconscious. A retired police officer and a nurse, who were at the beach, performed CPR while an ambulance arrived to take her to Seven Rivers Community Hospital. She was pronounced dead on the way, at 8:34 p.m., said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ronda Hemminger Evan. McPherson said he spoke with a medical examiner Tuesday and was told the death was ruled "an accidental death by drowning, possibly a coronary event." Mary McPherson had three children, two sons, Bob and Dave, and a daughter, Mary Beth, who also lived in Crystal River.
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