Obituaries: Mrs. Oscar Franks, 1956, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483

**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************


From: April 19, 1956 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American

Calvin Woman Takes Life With Shotgun Blast

The death of Mrs. Oscar Franks, 49, of Calvin, who died from a shotgun blast
Wednesday morning in her home has been ruled a suicide by Deputy Winn Parish
Coroner John R. McElwee.

The deputy coroner said Mrs. Franks died instantly at about 8:30 a.m. from a
self-inflicted wound under her chin caused by a 20-gauge shotgun blast.  The
woman evidently placed the weapon under her chin and pulled the trigger with
her finger, according to Dr. McElwee.

Deputy Sheriff Troy Kyson reported that the dead woman's husband said he was
chopping wood at the wood pile when he hard the gun go off, and rushed to find
his wife face down in the bedroom with the gun under her body.  The woman was
reported to have been in ill health.

Besides her husband, who is unemployed, she is survived by three children,
Joseph, Andrew, and Don.  She also leaves nine stepchildren by two former
marriages of her husband.

Funeral services were held Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Calvin Baptist Church,
of which she was a member.  The pastor, Rev. W. C. Hall, conducted the last
rites.  Burial was in the Sanders Cemetery.

Mrs. Franks' death was the second of its kind in Winn Parish in less than a
month.  The other was Wilburn E. Batten of Hot Springs, Ark., who shot himself
with a .32 caliber pistol in his car near Tannehill, March 23.