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Sharing these uplifting stories renews optimism about the future

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — We found her – right before her family found me. Faithful readers of this column will recall the story of little Donna Lee Vigil, who was 3 when she survived a near-drowning in the Santa Fe River on May 5, 1958, because of the heroism of Glen Malin, a 44-year-old World War II Navy veteran. Malin, a “shy hero” as the Santa Fe New Mexican called him, had not been one to talk about his gallantry. That day at the river he had jumped into the water, scooped up the lifeless child and began resuscitation efforts. ..............................................................

It had to be her. Over the weekend, a man named Joe Salazar said he knew the 3-year-old girl who nearly drowned in the Santa Fe River but for an unassuming hero named Glen Malin, who rescued her that harrowing day in May 1958. The girl’s name was Donna Lee Vigil and, in this column last Friday, I related how the youngest son of her soggy Samaritan hoped he might be able to find her just to see how life had turned out six decades later. Several of you contacted me with tips you had unearthed about the little girl, who would now be about 65. But one Donna Lee Vigil was born five years after t...

.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — At most times of the year, there is no river in the Santa Fe River. It’s a tributary of smooth stone and dried muck, a stream of silt winding its way through the historical heart of the city different and dry. But on an afternoon nearly 63 years ago, swift waters rushed along the channel, clear and cool, deep enough to drown a small child. Which on that May 5, 1958, it very ...