South Carolina Minister Dies After Cruise Head Injury – The Reverend Robert Beaty Clyburn, 83, husband of Mary Anne Griffin Clyburn of Aiken, South Carolina, passed away on Friday, March 29, 2019. He sustained a severe head injury in a fall while celebrating his 62nd wedding anniversary on a Mississippi riverboat cruise aboard Mississippi River cruise ship American Queen.
American Queen embarked from Memphis, Tennessee on a 7-night cruise on Sunday, March 24, 2019 with calls at Vicksburg, MS; Natchez, MS; Baton Rouge.LA; St. Francisville, LA; Nottoway Plantation and LA; New Orleans, LA.
Bob was a member of St. John’s United Methodist Church, where he was a Sunday School teacher, a Stephen Minister, and a member of the choir. He attended Aiken Senior Men, was a past member of the Aiken Choral Society, and was formerly active in various theatrical productions of The Heart Board, The Diabetes Society, and Aiken Community Playhouse.
Rare Cruise Ship Death
This is the first cruise ship death we have documented aboard a river cruise ship this century. Typically, because the river cruise ships have such low passenger capacity, we rarely see deaths aboard, particularly rare is having the passenger be a minister, and a passenger octogenarian on a river cruise is the trifecta of rarity of river cruise ship deaths.
Psalm 90 states, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.”
Article Resources:
- Cruise Ship Deaths – Rev Robert Beaty Clyburn
- American Queen Live Cruise Ship Tracker
- Cruise Ship Weather – Gulf of Mexico Lake Charles Radar
Other Recent Cruise Ship Deaths:
- Wu Chih-huang Passenger Death Aboard SuperStar Aquarius
- Peggy Bowman Zirkle Passenger Death Aboard Queen Victoria
- Nobuhle Buhle Bhengu MSC Seaside Crew Illness Death Bahamas
- Joseph John Inteso Cruise Ship Passenger Illness Death
- Darin Daniel Green Notable Cruise Industry Death
Video: American Queen River Cruise || Dec 2018
