PEOPLE: LIFESAVER AWARDS PRESENTED BY CITY

Surrounded by friends, firefighters and police officers on the second floor of Cape Girardeau Fire Station 1 on Thursday, James Russell explained his exceptional bravery with sincerity.

"I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done," he said.

But few people would have fought through 50 feet of driftwood, swimming into the heart of the Mississippi River, to save a stranger as Russell did on July 1.

Camcorders rolled as the crowd watched Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Dan White award Fire Department Lifesaver awards to Russell, Aaron Baughn, Donald Van Horn, and 9-year-old Kyle Flynn.

"Heroes come in all shapes, sizes and ages," White said.

After receiving his award, Russell, 36, a gravedigger, recalled seeing the woman swept up in the current of the Mississippi River and deciding he had to rescue her.

He ran along the bank to get ahead of her before jumping into the water, he said.

"I can swim like a fish, so it didn't bother me," he said.

The same boating accident that dumped the woman into the water also resulted in Van Horn, 29, a construction worker, and Baughn, 25, an off-duty animal control officer, saving another civilian, who was clinging to a pipe in the river. Baughn had heard the emergency call on his police radio.

"I heard the call," Baughn said. "I told Don what was going on. We got my boat, hooked it up to my truck and went to the river."

A crisis was set in motion when a 15-foot pleasure boat loaded with a group of friends ran out of fuel.

The group intended to float down the river to buy more gas but hit a barge moored near the Cape Girardeau Sand Co. and capsized.

The passengers weren't wearing safety floatation devices.

Saves brother

The youngest of the four award recipients had saved a life earlier that summer.

Flynn was 8 years old in May when his brother, Andrew Wethington, 11, placed a slipknot around his own neck to make believe that he was going to hang himself in their parents' backyard. The play hanging became the real thing when Andrew slipped. Kyle ran into the house, grabbed a knife, and cut his brother loose, White said.

Wethington was rushed to St. Francis Medical Center where he remained unconscious for several hours. He escaped serious injury.

Kyle said his quick, brave thinking was "because I love my brother and I didn't want him to die."

He attends Clippard Elementary School.

"When people do things like this without regard for their own safety, these people are worthy of recognition," said White, adding that he intends to begin a tradition of awarding the lifesaver plaques to deserving citizens.