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Pa. teen who drowned was a hard worker, grandma says
By jeanne starmack
sharon, pa.
The grandmother of a teenager who drowned in the Shenango River remembered him Tuesday as hard-working and fun-loving as his family prepared for his funeral.
Brandin Norris, 15, drowned in the river Monday while swimming with friends. He was reported missing about 3 p.m., and his body was found about 6:30 p.m. not far from where he disappeared near the Budd Street Bridge, said Sharon Fire Chief Terry Whalen.
Brandin’s mother, Heather Hull, and father, Arthur Norris, both of Farrell, Pa., were making funeral arrangements Tuesday, said his grandmother, Virginia Hull of Sharon. A fund also has been set up to help with funeral expenses, Virginia Hull said. The Brandin Norris Fund is set up in her and her husband Glenn’s names, she said, at First National Bank, 7 State St., Sharon. Donations can be made at any First National branch, she noted.
Hull said Brandin lived in Farrell with his mother. He was visiting Hull at her Madison Street, Sharon, home Monday morning, she said.
He left the house about 12:20 p.m., saying he’d be back in a few minutes, she said. “He didn’t come back. The next thing we knew, cops were here asking if we knew a Brandin Norris,” she said.
Hull said that Brandin, who was borderline autistic, went to the river with a 9- and a 10-year-old who live several streets away from her.
Those children alerted a passer-by when he went under and did not come up, said Whalen. The passer-by called 9-1-1.
The Sharon and Brookfield fire departments searched by boat, the Pennsylvania State Police used a helicopter and the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department sent a dive team to help, Whalen said. The Army Corps of Engineers shut the gates to the Shenango Dam in Sharpsville to lower the water level, he said. The Mecca Fire Department and Red Cross also helped, he said.
The boy’s body was found under tree branches in the water, he said.
Whalen said the river appears calm, but that is deceptive. “There’s a tremendous current,” he said.
Hull said her grandson would have been in the 10th grade at Keystone Education Center, a charter school near Greenville.
He loved to fish, she said, and had just bought all his school clothes with money he’d made baling hay at a farm for three weeks.
He made a joke about buying his school shoes Monday morning before he left, she said: He told her his shoes cost $29,95, but all he had was $30. He made her smile like that, she said.
Three siblings survive him — Sherise Norris, 17; Nathan Hull, 18; and Timothy Hooks, 18, she said.