Sarah Priscilla McGinnis Thornburg

Sarah Priscilla Thornburg (nee McGinnis) was one of the few mothers who perished from the Spanish Influenza Pandemic who is buried at Spring Hill. She was also one of our oldest victims, passing on at the age of 80. Though Sarah herself did not give birth after having the Spanish Flu, it is important to note the impact of being pregnant while being sick with the Spanish Flu. Pregnancy made women much more susceptible to Spanish Influenza. Pregnant women were 50% more likely to contract pneumonia. Of that 50%, half of them were likely to die(3). If a woman did not succumb to the flu, their fetus died - miscarriage rates escalated at the end of 1918. Women who were pregnant, survived the flu, and then gave birth were having weaker babies. The Spanish Influenza negatively impacted a small portion of The Greatest Generation's population in this way. Sarah would not live to see this generation, as she left this Earth on December 23, 1918. She is the only person on this tour to have died in December. She was wife to John William Thornburg and mother to Georgie Eliza Thornburg and Henry Orsamus Thornburg.

1. Spreeuwenberg, Peter. Reassessing the Global Mortality Burden of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. American Journal of Epidemiology, ser. 2561-2567, vol. 187, no. 12. Published September 7th 2018. NCBI.
2. Casto, James E.. "Deadly 1918 flu hit Huntington hard." The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington) May 1st 2009.
3. Harris, John W. INFLUENZA OCCURRING IN PREGNANT WOMEN A STATISTICAL STUDY OF THIRTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY CASES. Journal of the American Medical Association, ser. 978-980, vol. 72, no. 14. Published April 3rd 1919.