Obit: Watseka Repulican Jan. 25, 1951 TRAFFIC CRASH FATAL FOR TWO SHELDON YOUTHS Residents of Sheldon were shocked and saddened this week by a traffic tragedy which took the lives of two teen-aged youths, injured a 17 year- old girl, and narrowly missed involving four others in a auto-truck collision late Tuesday night on highway 24 about a mile west of Sheldon. The dead are Thomas Kirkpatrick 16, son of Mrs. Doris June Kirkpatrick and Ronald Mayotte 15, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Mayotte, all of Sheldon. Young Kirkpatrick was killed instantly. The Mayotte boy, who suffered a skull fracture, crushing chest inuuries, and severe head lacerations died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at Iroquois Hospital. Miss Anna Smith , 17, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Smith, also of Sheldon, was reported in "good" condition at the hospital Thursday morning. She was suffereing from a possible skull fracture and shock. According to State Trooper Carlyle Guenter of Kankakee who investigated, the accident happened when Young Kirkpatrick , driving a 1950 Pontiac, west-bound, apparently lost control of the car, which skidded into a ditch on the left side of the highway and bounced out into the path of a semi-trailer, driven by Harold I. Oliver, 37 of Decatur. The impact exploded the truck's gasoline tanks setting the vehicle afire. Guneter said the truck turned upside down and its cargo of cartoned whishkey was strewn for fifty feet along the highway. The Sheldon-Iroquois fire departments were called to the scene to fight the blaze, which eventually destroyed the truck. Oliver, pinned in the cab by the collision, was released by firemen who cut off one of the cab doors with an acetylene torch. A few slight burns about the legs were his only injuries. "I'm all right," he told his resucuers. "See to those kids. They need your help much more than I do." It was the first time the truck driver had been involved in an accident in the 14 years, it was said. Firemen stayed at the accident scene, keeping the blazing truck under control and helping remove the wreckage from the highway, which was cleared shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday. A wrecker took the automobile, completely demolished, to the Trudeau garage in Sheldon. The engine of the wrecked car was found in a nearby field. According to a report, Kirkpatrick and several other Sheldon high school students had been atttending the county basketball tournament in Watseka and had returned to Sheldon to discharge several of their passengers. Alighting from the car only a few minutes before the fatal crash were Davy Lee Henderson, Landon Streleski, Elaine Swanson, Janet Worley and Janice Bussert. As they were leaving the automobile, it was said, the Smith girl met them and asked Kirkpatrick and Mayotte if she could have a ride home. The boys answered in the affirmative, but instead of taking her directly home drove west out of town. Funeral services for the Kirkpatick youth will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Presbyterian church in Sheldon, the Rev. William Montgomery officiating. Born Thomas Reed Kirkpatrick, on Ocotber 16, 1935, in Minneapolis, Minn, he was the son of Everett M. and Doris June Reed Kirkpatrick. The father now resides in Washington, DC. Thomas was a sophomore in Sheldon High School and attended the Sheldon Presbyterian church. Besides the parents, he is survived by a sister, Mary Ellen, 10 and his maternal grandmother , Mrs. Brenda B. Reed, of Sheldon. Funeral arrangements were incomplete for Ronald Dean Mayotte, who was born March 15, 1935 in Sheldon, the son of Andrew and Frieda Buck Mayotte. He spent his childhood in the Stockland and Sheldon Communities and attended the Sheldon Consolidated schools, while the family lived on a farm. The family moved into Sheldon about three years ago. Ronald was a sophomore at Sheldon High School, where he excelled as an "A" student. He was a member of the boy's glee club, the mixed chorus and the band. As an eighth grade graduate he had received an award for scholarship from the Sheldon American Legion Post, the highest honor bestowed by the organiztion, to a grade school pupil. He attended the Sheldon Christian Church. Surviving besides the parents are a sister, Barbara Ann , 14, at home; the maternal grandmother, Mrs. Nellie Briscoe Buck of Sheldon, and s everal aunts and uncles. The body was to be returned from the Minier funeral home to the residence Thursday evening. --------------------------------------------------------------------- UGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: JeneoBug