Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Banks, Dale Donald 1937 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net September 30, 2011, 12:00 pm Ionia County News, 4 Feb 1937 5th Auto Death Recorded Here As Month Ends. Dale Banks Dies From Injuries Received In Crash Saturday. Rites Held Here Tues. Ionia county traffic added another to its toll of death, bringing the total to five for the city and county combined for the first month of 1937 when Dale Banks, 16-year old Ionia Boy Scout and high school student, died in the Ionia hospital shortly after eight o’clock Sunday morning from injuries received at 1:00 o’clock Saturday afternoon when he crashed his car head-on into a tree on Wall street back of the Michigan Reformatory. Funeral services were held at 2:00 o’clock Tuesday afternoon from the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Banks, Yeomans street, and at 2:30 o’clock from the Evangelical church. Burial was in the Oak Hill cemetery across the street from the Banks home. Surviving besides his parents are a 12-year-old sister, Joyce, and two grandmothers, Mrs. M. E. Conroe, of Ionia, and Mrs. I. E. Banks, of South Dartmouth, Mass. Young Banks died from a blood clot on the brain 9 hours after being admitted to the Ionia hospital. He also suffered a fractured left leg, broken in at least three places, and several cuts about the chest and body. He was at first reported at the hospital to be recovering and was to be taken to a Grand Rapids hospital for further treatment. Early Sunday morning his condition became worse and he died shortly after 8:00 o’clock. The accident occurred just outside the Michigan Reformatory wall of Wall street when the youth was enough from his home to downtown where he was to meet his mother. Banks was reported to be traveling at a high rate of speed as he was driving south and when he struck frozen and slippery ruts on the dirt road he lost control of the auto and crashed into a small tree. The impact threw young Banks partly out of the car. The automobile was completely demolished. Dr. Victor Kling, reformatory physician, was called to the scene where he put splints on the boy’s leg and then removed him to the Ionia hospital in the prison ambulance. Dr. Roy C. Lintner was also called to the scene and later said that the youth suffered a fracture near the thigh and two between the knee and ankle. He also suffered severe lacerations about the hip and body. A hard blow on the head which formed a blood clot caused his death. The Banks youth was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Banks and was a prominent Ionia Boy Scout. He was a member of Troop 84 and lacked only one test of being a member of the first class rank. He was assistant patrol leader and quartermaster of the group and was also the troop’s bugler. He was a sophomore in the Ionia high school. At the services Tuesday afternoon members of his scout troop acted as pall bearers. Other members of the troop and school companions attended the rites in a body. ------ Ionia Daily Sentinel Standard, 3 Feb 1937 Funeral services for Dale Donald Banks were held Tuesday afternoon, February 2, at 2:30 o’clock at the Evangelical church. Prayer services for the immediate family were held at the home at 2 o’clock with Rev. A.L. Bingaman of Grand Rapids, officiating. Bearers were boy scouts who acted as a guard of honor from 12:30 o’clock until time for the regular services at 2:30 o’clock. They were Lyle Burdy, Ben Williams, Robert Todd, Donald Speckin, Dale Geiser and Robert Blivens. Flowers were in charge of Miss Lucille Green, Miss Mary Lou Steeby and Miss Hulda Hansbarger. Music was furnished by Mrs. Evelyn Waters at the piano. The boy scouts in automobiles as honorary escort preceded the funeral procession to Highland Park cemetery where the committal service was followed by taps sounded by Lyle Burdy and echoed by Ben Williams. Relatives and friends from away were Mrs. D.E. Green and daughter of Grand Rapids, Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Banks of Grand Rapids, and Mr. and Mrs. M. Nichol and family of Croton. About 100 Ionia boy scouts attended in a body, and nearly 150 school children in another group. [Transcriber Note: There is a notation on the obituary card that he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, not Highland Park Cemetery as indicated in the second article.] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/b/banks17078nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 4.7 Kb