Audrey Hazel Booth

Audrey Booth, 63, of 547 Montrose Ave., was driving her car south on U.S. 41 in Port Charlotte at approximately 6:40 a.m. Thursday when she either had a heart attack or some type of seizure and blacked out at the wheel, Public Information Officer Byron Snowden said. After she lost control of her car, the vehicle crossed the median and the northbound lanes of the highway and traveled several hundred feet across the highway shoulder and an access road before narrowly missing Pepe's Place pizza parlor at 3822 Tamiami Trail, Snowden explained. The vehicle then plummeted into the canal by the side of the restaurant and started to sink, Snowden said. A passing motorist called the sheriff's department immediately after witnessing the accident, and while he was talking to the sheriff's department over the telephone, he said he could see the taillights of Ms. Booth's car sinking deeper into the 10-foot deep canal.

Almost immediately after the car went into the canal, a rescue team from the nearby Port Charlotte Charlotte Harbor Fire Department with divers made it to the scene. The divers went in after Ms. Booth, according to Snowden. The woman was pulled from her submerged car and the rescuers began a successful attempt to revive her, Snowden said. It was not immediately known how long the woman was underwater after her car ran into the canal and sank.

Ms. Booth was then taken to Fawcett Hospital, where she remained under treatment Thursday afternoon.

Article from 23 Sep 1983 Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, FL)

Sources: Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com and FindAGrave.com

02/06/2026 EJS

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/100851822/audrey-h-booth