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Obituary- Dolezilek, August 2

August Dolezilek Dies In Grass Fire

August Dolezilek, 83, a retired Rossville farmer, may have been killed when his clothes were set ablaze as he tried to stomp out a small grass fire, authorities speculated. His body was found Monday, March 22, 1982, near his farm home.

Shawnee County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Ramirez told a reporter for the "Topeka Capital-Journal" they were speculating that Mr. Dolezilek was burning trash and, one way or another, was engulfed in flames.

Mr. Dolezilek's badly burned body was found at 3:28 p.m. lying in the driveway near his farmhouse, northeast of Rossville, about one-half mile south of 86th Street on Docking Road. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. Sherriff's deputies commented they had to treat the death as a homicide until the autopsy report is returned, even though the death appear accidental, maybe coupled with a heart attack.

Bennie Martinek, a neighbor, said that Dolezilek usually burned his trash. In the shadow of his farmhouse, a charred pile of newspapers and magazines littered the driveway. Farther north was the still-smoldering outline of a cedar tree and a wide patch of fire-blackened stubble.

Several of Dolezilek's relatives, including his brother Ted, also of rural Rossville, were at the scene soon after the fire was discovered. Ted told authorities that August lived alone and that he got around well despite his age. Their parents had lived in the small wood-frame farmhouse before his brother moved therein in the 1920s.

Fire units from Shawnee County Fire District No. 1, based in Silver Lake, were first on the scene. "We just happened on it." said Dale Upton. "We were out investigating an illegal burning and took that road back because we saw a column of smoke." They found the grass fire, by then barely burning, and Dolezilek's body.

Services for Mr. Dolezilek are pending at Verschelden Funeral Home, St. Marys.

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