Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Fletcher, Frank James 1924
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Ionia County News, 23 Oct 1924

Playing In Road On Way To School Is Fatal To Boy

Frank Fletcher, 6, Lyons Twp. Fatally Injured When Auto Strikes Him

Had Been Warned To Keep Off Highway

Carl Schild of Ionia, Driver of Car That Struck Youngster; Funeral Wednesday.

Frank James Fletcher, six-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Homer Fletcher of Lyons
township, was fatally injured on Monday morning on his way to school when he was
struck by an automobile driven by Carl Schild, proprietor of the Ionia Battery
Service station on South Steele street.  The youngster had been playing along
the highway with other young children and it was after a warning had been given
him that he darted before the car, sustaining a fractured skull as his body hit
the radiator, that resulted in his death, which came after all medical aid had
failed, at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon.

Mr. Schild said he saw the youngsters playing alongside the road and sounded his
horn several times.  He saw Frank dart back and forth from one side of the road
to the other, but thought the little fellow was aware of the approaching
machine, as the other children gave him warning.  As the car was a few feet from
the Fletcher youth, Mr. Schild clamped down his brakes, but the boy had flung
himself into the pathway of the machine and his skull received a fracture from
the impact against the radiator, that resulted in his death.  He never regained
consciousness.

Miss Madeline Myers, as well as a number of other children, witnessed the
tragedy.  She says she told Frank several times to quit running across the road,
but he failed to heed her warning.  The mishap was inside the school zone and
was about 500 feet from the Oak Grove school, which is just over the Lyons
township line in Ionia township.

Frank was an unusually bright youngster, with a cheerful disposition, large blue
eyes, brown hair, and was very active.  He started to school in September and
had been making splendid progress.  He was starting in his reader on the day of
the accident. . . .  [ This copy of the obituary ends here.]

[Transcribers note:  There is a notation on the obituary card that he was buried
in Balcom Cemetery.]


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