<font color="#FF0000">UPDATED:</font> 4-year-old dies in freak accident

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June 9, 2009

By Jeff Waters, Democrat Reporter The Suwannee Democrat Tue Jun 09, 2009, 04:38 PM EDT

A four-year-old Branford girl died Sunday from injuries she sustained when a television fell on her at her home in Branford Saturday, according to Chief Deputy Ron Colvin of the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office.

Olivia Grace Leatherman died at Shands UF, authorities said.

Circumstances of the incident are unclear.

"It was a tragic, tragic accident," said Chief Deputy Ron Colvin of the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office. "I feel for the entire family."

Olivia's grandfather Kenneth Leatherman wanted to warn folks of the dangers TVs can create.

"If we can do that and reach out and save just maybe one child," said Leatherman. "I want to make sure people understand that regardless of flat screen, wall mounted or sitting on a stand, they need to be secured properly."

Nicknamed "princess" and "pumpkin," Olivia, a pre-school student, loved to work in the yard with her father. Her grandfather said her laugh was "absolutely contagious." She loved to dance anytime she heard music.

Olivia and her grandfather made up a game called sock monster, he said. Olivia would sit in a chair with her grandmother, whom she called maw-maw, while her grandfather would come around the corner and steal her socks off her feet and run into his office. Olivia would run in, grab the socks, then quickly run back to her grandmother, all the while laughing.

Kenneth Leatherman said his granddaughter loved visiting the local library.

"She'd go down there and make me sit at the table while she went down the aisles," said Leatherman. "She was a typical four year old. She was learning her numbers and able to read and recognize most the alphabet."

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