83 years after deadly Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, descendants of those killed remember who they lost

PHOTOS: The weekend after Thanksgiving in 1942, a teenage Ina Fay Cutler was glued to her radio. There was news of a terrible fire that broke out at a nightclub in Boston where her mother, Jeannette Zall had spent her evening. โ€œYou held your breath to hear your mother’s nameโ€ listed among the injured, Cutler remembered. โ€œIt was such a shock.โ€

But she wouldn’t hear her mother’s name. The 35-year-old Jeannette Zall had tagged along with a group of people to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, an โ€œitโ€ spot in Boston at the time. Sheโ€™d never been to a nightclub before. The decision would be a deadly one.

Fire ripped through the club, killing nearly 500 people and injuring over a hundred more. It remains the deadliest fire in Boston history, and the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. For those left behind, their losses remain raw, even 83 years later.

WBUR-FM 90.9 Boston

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