[Note: Throughout the years many people claimed to be the inspiration for Twain's characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The following story is one such example. There is no evidence to indicate the truth of the claim.]
SPOKANE, Wash., March 5 (AP). -- Tom Sawyer, whose pranks depicted by Mark Twain have caused millions to laugh and weep, is dead.
Mrs. Flavilla Pineo of Coeur a'Alene, Idaho, revealed here today that her brother, Thomas Sawyer, who died on Feb. 7 at Tucson, Ariz., and was buried in Bellevue Cemetery, Ontario, was the original of the famous writer's story.
Clemens, she said, first saw Tom Sawyer on a river boat on the Mississippi. Later Sawyer worked twenty-five years in helping construct the Milwaukee Railroad through North Dakota and Montana. He went to Arizona in an effort to regain his health.
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