Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....RITENBURG, Oliver D. 1924
************************************************
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:
LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.comMarch 21, 2006, 12:31 pm

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of The Sebewa Center Association, Volume 5   October 1969   Number 2; submitted with permission from Editor Grayden D. Slowins
LOCAL BALLOONIST DIED FROM INJURIES - From the Ella Gunn Scrapbook of 1924:  
Oliver D. Ritenburg, age 22, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Ritenburg, live on 
the Bert Culver farm two miles north and west of Sunfield, died at 4 o'clock 
Monday morning at a hospital in Kalamazoo from injuries received Sunday at 6 
P.M. when his parachute failed to open quick enough in a balloon ascension at 
Long Lake near Kalamazoo.  According to information received here, the balloon 
was not fully inflated when it started up and did not ascend very far before it 
commenced to descend over some trees.  The young aeronaut cut loose, dropping 
about 300 feet to the ground, the parachute partly opening about 100 feet from 
the ground but not enough to check the fall very much.  The young man died from 
internal injuries, it being found there was not a broken bone.  He remained 
conscious to the end.
Oliver was born November 21, 1902, in Orange Township, Ionia County and spent 
his boyhood days near West Sebewa.  Last year he commenced making balloon 
ascensions.  On last Farmers Picnic, Sunfield, he made a drop from an aeroplane 
here.  He left here about two months ago, going to Grand Rapids and it was 
given out that his home was in Grand Rapids at the time of the accident.
He was a member of the National Guard stationed at Grand Ledge, Battery D, 119 
Field Artillery and also a member of the Ku Klux Klan of America.  Undertaker 
Hildinger went to Kalamazoo Monday after the body.  The funeral was held at the 
Sebewa Center M. E. Church Wednesday afternoon, buried in the Sebewa cemetery, 
Rev. A. Hoffman officiating.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/r/ritenbur931gob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/

File size: 2.3 Kb