Chester County PA Archives Obituaries.....Holston, Benjamin October 14, 1946 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Dan Lindley danoh19344@hotmail.com and Elaine Nornhold morgaine_55@yahoo.com October 3, 2006, 9:41 am Daily Local News, October 5, 1953 & October 15, 1946 Daily Local News, October 5, 1953 HOLSTON- In loving memory of Benjamin Holston, who passed away, Oct. 14, 1947* (sic). Gone is the face we loved so dear, Silent is the voice we loved to hear; Too far away for sight or speech, But not too far from thought to reach. Sweet to remember him who once was here, And who, though absent, is just as dear. Sadly missed by son, Clarence and granddaughter, Ruthann. Daily Local News, October 15, 1946 Benjamin Holston, 66, a painter, was found shot to death in a second-floor bedroom of his home at 228 Magnolia Street, yesterday afternoon. Police said he has used a borrowed shotgun to take his own life. Holston’s body was found by his wife, Isabelle, at about 4.20 P.M., approximately five minutes after the shot was fired. She summoned neighbors who telephoned police and Officers John McCarthy and Thomas Eavenson went to the house. They said the victim had tied a cord around the trigger of a single-barreled 12 gauge trap gun, looped the cord around the butt of the stock, and discharged the weapon by pulling the cord. The blast struck Holston on the left side of the chest, below the heart, killing him instantly, according to Dr. George Gomez, who was called by police to examine the body Members of Mr. Holston’s family said that he had been in failing health and unemployed for about the past four months. Mrs. Holston told police that she and her husband had spent some time together early yesterday afternoon with a neighbor who dropped in to see them, and that later she left the house to go up town, leaving her husband along (sic) in the house with her sister, Miss Florence Carey, an invalid. Miss Carey said that after Mrs. Holston left the house Holston got out the borrowed shotgun and said he was going upstairs to look for an owl that had been bothering the household for the past several nights. “If I don’t come down, don’t be alarmed,” she quoted Holston as saying. “I’ll be up there watching for the owl.” HEARD SHOT Five minutes later, about 4:14 P.M., Miss Care heard a shot, and when her sister came in a few minutes afterward, she told her there had been “a terrific noise” upstairs, and that she had better go up to see what happened. In the bedroom, Mrs. Holston found the body of her husband, lying in a pool of blood behind a bureau. Officers McCarthy and Eavenson summoned Dr. Gomez, who pronounced the man dead. Coroner Cooper T. Bishop, Jr., Phoenixville, was called, and authorized the removal of the body to the Hicks Funeral Home. The coroner said he will issue a certificate of death by suicide on the information filed by police. LEAVES NOTE A sealed envelope, on which was written, “To my wife and children, please forgive me,” and signed by Holston, was found by police and will be turned over to the coroner. Mr. Holston was a native of Oxford, but had lived most of his life in West Chester. He was employed many years ago by the old Sharples Seperator Company, and later worked for the firm of Hoopes Brothers and Darlington for about 22 years. In recent years he was employed by the National Foam System, Inc. A house painter by trade, he also was in business for himself. He is survived by his wife, a brother Leonard L. Holston, of Atglen, and the following children Clarence Leonard, Lawrence Leroy and Clyde John, all of West Chester; George Elmer, in military service at Fort Jackson, S.C.; Albert, in military service in Manila, Philippine Islands, and Gertrude, wife of Franklin Lawrence, Brandywine Manor. There are three other children deceased. Ibid HOLSTON- in West Chester, on Oct. 14, Benjamin F., husband of Isabella D. Holston, in the 66th year of his age. Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral without further notice from the Hicks Funeral Home, 229 S. High St., West Chester, on Friday, Oct. 18, at 2 P.M. Interment in Greenmount Cemetery. Friends may call Thursday evening. Additional Comments: *(note: death year was 1946) This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 4.6 Kb