Miscellaneous Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas Deaths - 1955
From the Harrison Daily Times, Harrison, Arkansas,
dated Monday, January 3, 1955:
Over Holiday Weekend - Violent Death Toll Reaches 17 in Arkansas
Seventeen persons died violent deaths in Arkansas during the
week that ended Sunday midnight.
Thirteen deaths resulted from Arkansas traffic accidents
including four New Year's Eve. Two persons died in fires,
one was shot to death, and the other non-traffic death was
termed suicide.
Jobe Lucas, 37, of Parkin, Ark., was killed New Year's Eve
in a two-car collision at the junction of Highways 61 and
42 near Tutrell in northeast Arkansas.
A car ran off a bridge at Smackover Creek west of Smackover
New Year's Eve, instantly killing Clifton Points, 20, of
El Dorado and fatally injuring the driver, 19-year-old
Troy Walker of El Dorado.
The other New Year's Eve traffic fatality was
Miss Tommy Hamilton, 22-year-old North Little Rock nurse,
who was killed when the car she was in ran off the road in
Little Rock.
The shooting was ruled justifiable homicide. An unidentified
Negro man was shot to death at Pine Bluff by Willie Perkins,
a Negro deputy sheriff.
Jefferson County Sheriff Allen Nixon said Perkins shot the
man after he tried to question him about merchandise he was
attempting to sell and the man approached Perkins in a
menacing manner.
Nixon said the merchandise was part of the loot from the
recent burglary of a Pine Bluff jewelry store.
From the Harrison Daily Times, Harrison, Arkansas,
dated Monday, January 24, 1955:
Violent Death Toll Reaches 10
Ten persons died from violent causes in Arkansas during the
week that ended Sunday at midnight.
Six of the deaths resulted from highway accidents. One of
the accidents occurred Saturday night.
Mrs. Aver C. Johnson, 31-year-old Negro of Little Rock, was
killed instantly when the car in which she was riding
crashed into a tree near Scott.
W. F. Alexander, 70-year-old Pine Bluff contractor, died
after his pickup truck wrecked on a bridge on Highway 15
yesterday.
Of the other four deaths, three were children. A two-year-
old girl choked to death on a piece of pie at Fordyce, a
one-year-old girl
drowned when she fell into a water barrel near DeWitt, and
a seven-year-old boy was run over by a train at Little Rock.
The other death resulted from a home fire Jan. 6.
Mrs. Johnny Nicholson, 19-year-old mother of the Lord School
community near Morrilton, died Saturday from the burns. The
fire was touched off when she tried to kindle a fire with
kerosene.
From the Harrison Daily Times, Harrison, Arkansas,
dated Monday, March 28, 1955:
3 Homicides Push Death Toll to 12
Three homicides pushed Arkansas' violent death toll for the
week which ended Sunday midnight to 12.
Little Rock police said Ada Jean Montgomery, a 23-year-old
Negro woman told them she stabbed 35-year-old Alf Hill
yesterday afternoon while they were drinking and fighting.
The man died en route to a hospital.
A 64-year-old fishing camp operator at Calion Lake north of
El Dorado was killed Saturday in his store. The shooting
victim was Hayward H. Parks. Prosecutor Bruce Bennett said
he would file a first degree murder charge today against
Harold Curtis Oliver, 29, an El Dorado oil field worker.
Twenty-one-year-old Jake Cain has been charged with the
murder in connection With the fatal shooting of his father
Thursday. Jerry Cain, 8l, was found dead in the barnyard of
his farm north of Harrison. Police quoted young Cain as
saying he hid in the loft of a barn and shot his father.
Young Cain said his father had threatened him and his
mother.
Two violent deaths resulted from burns, including the
Saturday night death of a Mountain Home filling station
operator. Sixty-three-year-old James E. Fisk suffered fatal
burns when his station building was destroyed by fire.
Firemen said the blaze apparently was started by an oil
stove.
A light plane crash took one life, The body of 61-year-old
C. D. Sanders, a Camden accountant, was found in the
wreckage of his plane north of Fordyce late Saturday.
Sanders had taken off from Camden Friday morning, presumably
headed for Little Rock. He was reported missing the next day.
The downed plane was spotted by the Civil Air Patrol. Civil
Aeronautics Administration officials were investigating the
crash yesterday, but could give no clue to the cause.
At least one death was attributed to the cold wave which hit
Arkansas during the Week. Benton County Coroner W. F. Burns
said that H. P. Holly was found frozen to death on the porch
of his home near Cave Springs. The coroner said the
temperature had dropped to 10 degrees that night.
Four traffic deaths were reported during the week, but none
came on the weekend. Another death earlier in the week was
due to drowning.
From the Harrison Daily Times, Harrison, Arkansas,
dated Monday, June 6, 1955:
Mishaps Kill 12 in State Over Weekend
Twelve week end violent deaths including eight killed in
traffic accidents - raised Arkansas' toll to 21 for the week
ending at midnight Sunday.
John Walker Shelley, 81, of Fayetteville, drowned Sunday
night when a flash flood came roaring down a mountain
stream after his car had stalled.
Mrs. Robert Kahn, who was driving the car in which Shelley
was riding, attempted to ford a small stream. The water was
about 18 inches deep, Sheriff Bruce Crider said.
The sheriff said that the car stalled and both started
wading to the bank. Before they reached the bank, a wall
of water six feet high - caused by 2 1/2 inches of rain in
20 minutes in the area - came rushing, down the stream.
Mrs. Kahn was washed out on shore about a quarter of a mile
downstream.
Shelley's body was recovered at 9 Sunday night about a mile
downstream.
Shelley, a retired University of Arkansas policeman, was
en route to a small rural church when the accident occurred.
James Slider of Pine Bluff was stabbed to death Sunday.
Capt. Clyde Booher of Pine Bluff police force arrested his
wife, Ira Dell Slider.
Thornton Martin, 49, of near Pine Bluff, was arrested by
Jefferson County Sheriff Harold Norton after his wife,
Artavia Butler, 45, was found dead from a shotgun blast.
Highway collisions over the weekend took eight lives. Two
occurred Sunday.
Joan Whatley, 8, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Whatley
of St. Louis, was killed in a two-car collision on a rain-
slick highway near West Memphis, Ark. Twelve other persons
suffered minor injuries in the crash.
Mrs. Hugh W. Terry of Lubbock, Tex., was killed when the
Terry car and a pickup truck collided at the intersection of
Highway 165 and 2 near Lake Village, Ark. The victim's
husband and their two children suffered minor injuries.
Two Saturday collisions took three lives each.
Three persons were killed and four others injured in the
collision of a car and light truck two miles west of
Morrilton on U. S. Highway 64.
Killed in the crash were Pless Alexander, 48, a farmer of the
nearby Blackwell community; his son, 7-year-old Danny, and
Fay Norman Goines, 43, of Russellville, Ark. Three persons still
were on the critical list at a Morrilton hospital last night:
Mrs. Alexander, 47; her daughter, Elizabeth Carol, 5, and
Aubrey Goines Jr., of Atkins, Ark. Another Alexander child,
Mamey Lee, 13, was injured less seriously.
A Missouri Pacific passenger train and a car collided at a
crossing near Van Buren earlier Saturday, killing the driver of
the car, Mrs. Belle Vinsett, 47, and her two grandchildren.
Mrs. Vinsett, of the nearby Oak Grove community, was the wife of
Fred Vinsett, a stock farmer. The children, Kenneth V. Owen, 4,
and Karen Lee Owen,3, were the only children of Mr. and
Mrs. Kenneth Owen.
A Saturday night argument at North Little Rock ended in the
fatal shooting of a young Negro woman, identified as
Effie B. Wilson, about 23.
Tommy Wilson, 23-year-old Negro who police said was not related
to the shooting victim, was being held on an open charge.
Of the violent deaths reported earlier in Ihe week, three
resulted from traffic accidents, two were drownings, two were
due to industrial accidents, and one a farm accident and one
person was killed in a plane crash.
From the Harrison Daily Times, Harrison, Arkansas,
dated Monday, August 22, 1955:
New Record Set in Arkansas - Violent Death Toll at 36
Ten persons died in accidents involving trains last week as
Arkansas' toll of violent deaths for the period, ending Sunday
midnight, climbed to a 1955 record of 36.
The year's previous high was 26 during the week which began July 4.
The count included the deaths of five persons in a train derailment
at Marked Tree; a mother and three small children who were killed
in a train-truck collision at Hunter; and a man who died when he
was struck by a train at Havana, in Yell County.
Including the four in the train-truck collision, there were 19
deaths attributed to traffic accidents.
There also were three fatal shootings, two suicides and deaths
attributed to such causes as an insect bite, fire, electrocution,
a fall and a farm accident.
Almost half the violent deaths 16 - occurred over the weekend.
The weekend fatal traffic report included:
Jimmie Nutt, 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. James Nutt of Bearden,
who was killed when he was struck by a car near his home Sunday.
Johnny L. Walker, 33, of Little Rock, who was killed in North
Little Rock Sunday when his car rammed a parked truck.
Ira Ables of Hampton, killed Saturday night when his car failed
to make a curve and overturned on Highway 4, seven miles east of
Camden.
George Nation, 24-year-old Epps, La., Negro, killed when his head
struck an underpass Saturday night at Camden. Nation was standing
in the back of a truck when it passed under the structure.
Mary Lee Allen, 27, of North Little Rock who died Saturday from
injuries suffered the night before when she plunged from a moving
automobile in North Little Rock.
The tragic deaths of four at a railroad crossing. Mrs. Ray Hunt
was taking a niece, 3-year-old Sue Clayton, to her parents
Saturday after the child had spent the night with the Hunts. At
a railroad crossing in Hunter, where the victims lived,
Mrs. Hunt's truck and a Cotton Belt freight collided. Killed in
the crash were Mrs. Hunt, the Clayton child, and two Hunt children
2-year-old Janice and 6-year-old David.
Another freight train struck and killed Sam Inman, 55, of Havana,
Sunday. The engineer said he spotted Inman sitting on the railroad
tracks at Havana with his head on his knees, but that the train
whistle failed to arouse him. The Marked Tree train wreck occurred
Friday.
J. W. Fleming, 81, of Forrest City, who was injured fatally in an
accident four miles south of Wynne Friday. A Cross County deputy
sheriff said that a car driven by James C. Finley of Memphis
struck Fleming about 1:30 p.m. He died in Cross County Hospital
at Wynne eight hours later.
A 54-year-old DeWitt man, Garnet Owens, died at a Little Rock
hospital Sunday from burns suffered at his home last Thursday.
Owens was burned when he attempted to start a fire in a
woodburning stove with tractor fuel. The fuel exploded.
At Pine Bluff, J. C. Charles, about 25, was being held in the
fatal shooting Sunday of his father, Wallace Charles, about 50.
Guther Lidge, 45, died yesterday in a Hot Springs hospital from
gunshot wounds received Friday. Police are holding
Henry Lee Morrison, 24, and Police Chief John Ermey said that
he would be charged with murder. Lidge was shot three times.
Ermey said that the shooting followed an argument between
Lidge and Morrison.
