OBIT: Emma Lou (SLEASMAN) RHOADS, 1946, formerly of Somerset County, PA

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

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
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EMMA LOU RHOADS

Three Killed and Two Injured When Car Ran Wild

Dead Are Miss Jane Shoemaker, Rockwood, Mrs. Roy Rhoads and Latter's Daughter

  Miss Irene Shoemaker, a student in the eighth grade of Rockwood High School, 
was instantly killed about 8 o'clock Tuesday, April 30, when the car in which 
she was riding, in company with her cousin, Mrs. Roy Rhoads of New Alexandria 
R.D. 1, struck a bridge abutment on the William Penn Highway, 3 miles west of 
New Alexandria.
  Miss Shoemaker and Mrs. Rhoads, who was accompanied by her four children, were 
out driving, having left their home earlier in the evening and were on Route 42 
a short distance beyond New Alexandria when Mrs. Rhoads, who was driving, lost 
control and the car crashed into a bridge with high stone abutments.  It is 
believed that a tire may have blown out causing the car to swerve and hit the 
stone abutment on the opposite side of the road.  Miss Shoemaker was pronounced 
dead upon admission to the Greensburg hospital.
  She sustained fractures of the skull, left arm and both legs when she was 
hurled from the car.
  Mrs. Rhoads was also killed instantly and her four-year-old daughter, Nancy, 
died in the Greensburg hospital some time later.  Two of her three young sons, 
Roy, Clark and John, were seriously injured. 
  Irene Shoemaker, 17, daughter of Mrs. Bessie Shoemaker of Rockwood was born 
April 5, 1929. Her father, Benjamin Shoemaker, died some years ago.  She is 
survived by her twin sister, Mrs. Carl Hyatt of Confluence, another sister, Mrs. 
Pearle Coughenour, and a brother, Elmer, both of Rockwood.
  Funeral services were conducted Saturday afternoon in the Rockwood Evangelical 
Church with Rev. A. M. Gahagan officiating.  Burial in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in 
charge of Mills & Mickey.
  A double funeral service was held for Mrs. Rhoads and her daughter Nancy, 
Saturday afternoon, at the Hauger Funeral Home in Somerset with Rev. Charles H. 
Shilke, pastor of the Lavansville Lutheran Church officiating.  
  Mrs. Rhoads was the former Emma Lou Sleasman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David 
Sleasman, who lived at Lavansville until about three years ago when they moved 
to Kreger.  Besides her parents and her three remaining children, she is also 
survived by her husband and the following brothers and sisters: Mrs. Carl 
Miller, Berlin; Mrs. Alpha Jones, Miss Orpha Sleasman, Charles and David 
Sleasman, all of Kreger.

Meyersdale Republican, May 9, 1946