Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Helms, Florence E. (Parmelee) 1952
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net March 20, 2010, 6:03 pm

Ionia Sentinel Standard, 11 Jan 1952

A 38-year old Ionia county farm woman became the county’s first 1952 highway 
fatality late Thursday afternoon when she died of shock and injuries received 
when the tractor on which she was riding overturned and pinned her beneath.

Dead is Mrs. Florence E. Helms, 38-year old wife of Chester Helms of Matherton 
who died about 4:30 p.m., Thursday on a roadway a mile west and a half mile 
north of Hubbardston in North Plains township on the Cowman road near the Ionia-
Montcalm county line.

Coroner Wallace H. Jackson of Ionia, who investigated the accident, said he was 
notified first by the family as the family undertaker and then a short time 
later was called by Dr. Milton Budd of Carson City as the county coroner.

Coroner Jackson said Mrs. Helms was driving the tractor which was pulling a 
wagon load of corn along a narrow country highway which Jackson said was highly 
crowned and was ice covered.  He said the wagon and tractor were going down a 
hill on the roadway and was preceded by the family farm truck driven by Mrs. 
Helms’ 16-year old son, Phillip, and a nephew, Jack Bushrey, 11.  The truck was 
going up the next hill when Phillip looked back and saw the tractor upside 
down.  The boys returned to the scene and found Mrs. Helms pinned under the 
tractor and still in the tractor seat.  Coroner Jackson said she said to the 
pair “Boys, get me out of here.”  The pair rolled the tractor over but Mrs. 
Helms apparently had died in the meantime.  Coroner Jackson said she was dead 
when the Carson City physician arrived.

Jackson said he believed the heavy load of corn caused the tractor to skid and 
although it had special tractor tire chains attached, it could not hold the 
load and jack knifed causing it to overturn.  Coroner Jackson said he believed 
Mrs. Helms died of shock resulting from the compound fracture of one arm, the 
fracture of the other and fractures of both ankles.  He said there were no 
other bruises or marks about her body.

The body was removed to the Peter DePew farm at the accident scene and then 
removed to the Boynton funeral home in Ionia.  The family lives on a farm one 
quarter mile west and a half mile south of Matherton.  Her husband Chester is 
employed at the Olds factory in Lansing.

Mrs. Helms was born at St. Johns, May 25, 1913, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Charles Parmelee.  She had lived in North Plains for about thirty years.  She 
was married to Chester Helms on October 28, 1939.

Surviving are her husband, a son, Phillip and a daughter Deanne, 11; her 
mother, Mrs. Jennie Parmelee of St. Johns; a sister, Mrs. Hazel McKeachie of 
St. Johns; a brother, Master Sergeant Robert W. Parmelee of the Marine corps 
stationed in Detroit, and a half-sister Mrs. Helen Bernea of Detroit.

Funeral services are to be conducted Sunday at 2 p.m. from the Matherton 
Methodist church with interment at East Plains cemetery north of Pewamo.


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