Freestone County, Texas
Obituaries


[Aubrey Wayne Childs s/o Leonidas Howell Childs, Jr and Florence Elizabeth Willard]


FAIRFIELD RECORDER, October 1943

C.P.O. Wayne Childs Loses Life Where Tankers Collide

Chief Petty Officer Wayne Childs of the U.S. Merchant Marines was listed as one 
of the 88 men killed Wednesday night, Oct 20, when two oil takers, blacked out,
collided off the coast of Florida, one of the tankers being heavily laden with 
gasoline which ignited and almost instantly turned the vessel into a flaming
inferno.  Only 28 members of the crew and Navy gun crews of both tankers 
escaped.

Wayne Childs was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Childs, now of Houston.  He was 
born Dec . 6, 1924 at Ward Prairie.  He attended the Ward Prairie school and
Fairfield school.  He was a member of the Ward Prairie Baptist Church.  He
volunteered for marine service over a year ago, and recently returning from a
cruise, he visited his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Childs and Mrs. Ben 
Willard here.