Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Chapman, Eugene C. 1953
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net November 1, 2014, 11:17 am

Ionia Sentinel Standard, 4 Dec 1953

Ionia county highways claimed the 27th fatality of the year early Friday morning
as Eugene C. Chapman, 17, was instantly killed.  The death sends the highway
toll for this year further upwards toward an all-time high for deaths on the
highways of Ionia county.  It was another single car accident which has
accounted for about three-fourths of all the highway deaths this year.

The accident Friday morning was termed by Deputy Sheriff Loyal Hodson as the
worst he had ever seen in his more than ten years in the county sheriff’s
department.  “I have never seen a car so completely demolished,” he stated.  The
car, which apparently had been traveling at a high rate of speed, was almost
completely wrapped around a tree.

The accident was discovered about 7 o’clock Friday morning by a passing
motorist.  It occurred about six miles west of Ionia on M-21 just west of the
Bernard Scheid truck stop on the south side of the road.  Officers believe the
accident happened at least an hour or two before it was discovered.  The car
motor was cold at the time it was found by a passing truck driver.  The crash
occurred opposite the home of Glenn Arnold.  It was believed Chapman was
traveling west from Ionia.  He has been employed on a farm north of Saranac.

Wallace H. Jackson, Ionia county coroner, who was called and removed the body
from the car said Chapman died as the result of a skull fracture.  The entire
right side of his skull was pulverized, Jackson said.  The car was wrapped so
tightly around the tree that the boy’s body was hardly visible.  A wrecker which
was called to the scene made several tries before the car could be loosened
enough to drop it back on its wheels.  The top of the car was crushed down below
the top of the seat to such an extent that its body was v-shaped, breaking away
from the front and rear sections of the frame.

Eugene Chapman was born in Ionia, May 15, 1936.  He has been residing at 114
North Jackson street with his mother, Mrs. Evelyn Johnson and his step-father,
Carl Johnson.

Besides his mother and step-father he is survived by a brother George, 16, and a
sister, Patricia, 14, and three half-sisters, Joyce, Rita and Rhoda, and a
half-brother, Richard.

Funeral services will be held Monday morning at 11 o’clock from the Boynton
funeral home, with the Rev. Heath Goodwin officiating.  Interment will be in
Highland Park cemetery.


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