OBIT: Gilbert RECKNER, 1943, Casselman, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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GILBERT RECKNER

Casselman Citizen Killed When His Car Was Wrecked
Miraculous Escape of Furloughed Soldier Riding with Him

  Gilbert Reckner, 24, of Casselman, was killed instantly when he lost control 
of his two-seated Ford, a 1936 model which he had recently purchased, when the 
car plunged over an embankment while descending the Casselman hill near the 
James Cramer home.
  Pfc. Clyde Phillippi, 23, enroute home from Camp Forest, Tennessee, for an 
eight-day furlough was a passenger and miraculously escaped death when thrown 
clear of the wreckage, but received severe lacerations to the left side of his 
face.
  Phillippi had known Reckner for four or five years and joined him in Somerset, 
Pa., when the two happened to meet shortly after Phillippi had arrived there by 
bus.  Reckner offered to drive the soldier to the home of his parents, Mr. and 
Mrs. J. E. Phillippi, in Casselman.
  The wreck occurred just after they entered the borough.  The soldier said he 
didn't believe the driver ever knew what happened and he said that he himself 
was nearly asleep but was awakened as the car left the road and plunged through 
the brush and over the bluff.
  Phillippi continued to his home, reported the disaster to his father and 
together they returned to the scene of the accident to find the dead driver 
pinned under the vehicle.
  Mr. Reckner is survived by his mother, Mrs. Laura Heining of Wilsoncreek; his 
wife and in infant daughter.

Meyersdale Republican, June 10, 1943