Nansemond-Isle of Wight-Sussex County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Patterson, Virginia E. Burton, 1936 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ CAR PLUNGES INTO RIVER CARRYING TRIO TO DEATH 2 YOUNG WOMEN AND ONE MAN DIE IN MURKY WATERS Bodies of Victims Are Recovered By Rescuers After Frantic Efforts SCENE OF TRAGEDY IS NEAR FRANKLIN Mrs. Virginia Patterson, Formerly of Suffolk, Is Among the Dead An automobile, plunging off a road curve, carried three persons to their death in the murky waters, of the Blackwater river at Franklin last night. Headlights and tail-light gleaming 18 feet beneath the surface, 45 minutes after the plunge, guided divers to the sedan in which were entombed Emmett Houston Patterson, 48, of Victoria; his daughter, Myrtle Agnes Patterson, 19; and his daughter-in-law, Mrs, Virginia Burton Patterson, 22, of Suffolk and Shreveport, La. Bodies Remain In Seats Still seated in the car, they were beyond the help of a resuscitation squad, hastily summoned from Raiford Hospital, which worked over the victims more than an hour before Dr. Edison [sic; Addison] Morgan gave up the effort and pronounced all three dead. The trio had left the residence of Mrs. Patterson's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Chesley [sic; Chesleigh] Burton, 311 West Washington street, here, about 5 p. m., bound for Victoria where Mrs. Paterson expected to visit her husband's family before rejoining him at Shreveport. Mr. Patterson and his daughter had spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Norfolk with another daughter, Mrs. J.L. Whittaker, 119 Woodview avenue. When they left Suffolk, a member of the Burton family said, Miss Patterson was driving. Negro Witnesses Accident William Mason, a Negro employee of the Hygiea Ice Co. which is located a short distance from the Blackwater River bridge at Franklin's eastern town limit, saw the sedan fail to make the curve at the bridge approach and plunge into the water from the bank, just missing the guardwall on the right. Mason notified two other company employees, Roy E. Johnson and Clyde Edwards, who summoned aid. The car had plunged to the river bottom in approximately 20 feet of water and stood on its nose, headlight and tail-light gleaming. Parker and Dennis Dive The rescue party, formed by wrecking crews from all Franklin garages and other volunteers, used boats and dived into the icy water in an effort to raise the car in time to save its occupants. The coldness of the water retarded the effort and after 45 minutes, John C. Parker, prominent attorney, and M.E. Dennis, a motor company employee, finally secured a chain to the rear bumper and the car was pulled to the surface and then to the bank. Miss Patterson at the Wheel Miss Myrtle Patterson was under the steering wheel, with her father at her side, and Mrs. Patterson was in the rear. The glass in the right front window was lowered approximately six inches. The windshield was smashed. The resuscitation squad, organized by Dr. Morgan, went to work in tne effort which proved vain. The body of Mrs. Patterson was brought to Suffolk last night, while those of Mr. Patterson and his daughter remained in Franklin to be transported to Victoria early today. Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Patterson will await the arrival here of her husband. Rites for the father and daughter will be conducted at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Victoria. The bodies will be taken to Stone Mountain tomorrow for burial there at 3 p.m. Mrs. Patterson is survived by her husband, Edgar Herman Patterson, an engineer with the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway, at Shreveport; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Burton, and three brothers, Ralph, Hines and Leo Burton, all of Suffolk. Mr. Patterson and his daughter are survived by the widow and mother, Mrs. Pearl Hudson Patterson, of Victoria; a daughter and sister, Mrs. J.L. Whittaker, and a son and brother, William Houston Patterson, of Norfolk. Mr. Patterson was a trainmaster with the Virginian Railway. Mrs. Virginia Burton Patterson moved to Suffolk with her family from Victoria about a year ago. For a while she was employed at Leggett's Department Store. She married Edgar Herman Patterson during the week of her arrival in Suffolk. [photo, captioned:] CAR AND TWO OF THREE DYING IN IT Shown above are Miss Myrtle Patterson (standing on running board) and Mrs. Virginia Burton Patterson, sisters-in-law, who were drowned when their car plunged into the Blackwater River at Franklin. E.H. Patterson, father of Myrtle, was the third occupant of the car to drown. ****************************************************************************** Three Drowned Here When Car Runs Into River Father, Daughter, Daughter-In-Law Meet Death As Blackwater Bridge Is Missed SUBMERGED 45 MINUTES Efforts to Restore Respiration For More Than An Hour Accomplish Nothing Missing the Blackwater River bridge as they approached it en route to Victoria at about 5:30 Wednesday afternoon, a party of three plunged down the Isle of Wight County bank of that stream into fifteen feet of water, where they were drowned before the car could be pulled far enough out to remove the bodies. The dead are E.H. Patterson, 46, of Victoria, his daughter, Miss Myrtle Patterson, 21, and Mrs. E.H. Patterson, Jr., 22, also of Victoria. They were returning from a holiday week-end in Suffolk, where Mrs. Patterson's parents live, when the fatal accident occurred. The automobile, an Oldsmobile sedan, left the road a few feet from the bridge and plunged over a fifteen-foot bank, tearing down a highway speed limit sign that stood near the bridge. Employees of Hygeia Ice Company, near the bridge, heard the crash and saw the car, members of the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department and a number of other people going to the rescue. John C. Parker, Jr., and M.E. Dennis of Franklin went into the water, Mr. Parker attaching a chain to the car's rear axle, lights of the local fire truck and the R.C. Motor Company wrecking truck being trained on the spot. The rear light of the submerged car was visible through the water, and aided in locating the vehicle. Three wrecking trucks, those of R.C. Motor Company, Franklin Motor Company and W.E. Smith were chained together and pulled the car to the water's edge after two or three unsuccessful attempts, it being about 6:15 when the bodies were removed, men standing in a rowboat passing the bodies to others on the shore. Mrs. Patterson, occupying the rear seat alone, was removed first, followed by Patterson in the front seat and his daughter, who was at the driver's seat. The bodies were stretched out on the Hygeia Ice Company's loading platform, where a number of volunteers attempted artificial respiration. Dr. Addison Morgan of the Raiford Hospital staff directed efforts to revive the people for over an hour, a call to Suffolk for a pulmotor not having been answered. Death by drowning was pronounced by Isle of Wight County coroner F.I. Steele of Windsor after it was plain that no hope remained. No evidence of internal injury was found at the funeral home of W.J.M. Holland & Son here, where the bodies were carried awaiting the arrival of morticians from Victoria and Suffolk. Identification of the man in the party was made immediately after he was pulled from the water by his automobile registration card, and a telegram addressed to Mrs. Patterson from her husband, sent from Shreveport, La., on November 28 and received in Suffolk identified her. Onlookers recognized the woman even before the telegram was found, she being a Miss Virginia Burton of Suffolk before her marriage, with a wide circle of friends there and in Sussex and Southampton counties. Patterson's daughter was not positively identified until parents of Mrs. Patterson and a Victoria mortician had seen her at the funeral home later in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Burton of Suffolk, parents of Mrs. E.H. Patterson, Jr., and her three brothers, Ralph, Leo and Hines Burton, all of Suffolk, came to Franklin early in the evening, the body being taken back to the Hill funeral home in that city. The bodies of Patterson and his daughter were carried back to Victoria. Current explanations of the accident were that Miss Patterson either left the road when suddenly confronted with the bridge, which is narrower than the roadway, or that a spur line railroad crossing a few yards from the bridge threw the car out of control. The railroad crossing is generally considered as dangerous due to a sudden dip in the road at that point and an uneveness that could easily throw an automobile out of control if the driver was unfamiliar with the road. Approaches to the bridge on either side are unprotected by fence or guard rails. The lights on the bridge were on at the time. The accident was the worst traffic catastrophe of record locally and was the subject of the sympathetic interest of several hundred people who came to the scene. Sergeant E.O. Forbes of the State Highway patrol investigated the accident and handled the heavy crowds and traffic. Virginia Ellis (BURTON; Mrs. Edgar Herman) PATTERSON, b. 7 Sep 1914, Sussex Co., d. 2 Dec 1936, Blackwater R., opposite Franklin, interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery (Block P, Lot 46*), Suffolk, 2 Mar 1937, "Suffolk News-Herald," Vol. 14, No. 215, Thurs., Dec. 3, 1936, pp. 1 & 8; "Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Vol. 32, No. 9, Fri., Dec. 4, 1936, p. 1 *Additional information: Cedar Hill list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_p.txt Her mother, Mattie Huelan (HINES; Mrs. Richard Chesleigh) BURTON (1891 - 1941) is likely buried unmarked in the same lot, which Richard owned: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_a.txt Find a Grave Memorial #104806830 mistakenly gives her as the daughter of "Neb" Nebuchadnezzer & Ellen (SMITH) BURDEN, buried in Block H, Lot 130. Her father (1891 - 1979) & step-mother are buried in Ivor Cemetery. SCHS Cemetery Project, Ivor list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/ivor.txt D.Cert. 30874 (Windsor #55) gives b. Sussex Co. Her family appeared in the 1920 Census in Dendron, Surry Co. While her husband styled himself E.H. Jr., his father was named Emmett Houston PATTERSON. Virginia & Edgar m. 11 Jan 1935 in Suffolk; their M.Cert. states she was b. in Southampton Co. Edgar (1911 - 1948), his second wife, & his mother Pearl Gertrude (HUDSON PATTERSON; Mrs. Clarence L.) LOWE (1889 - 1959) are buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Victoria, Lunenburg Co. Emmett & Myrtle were buried in Stone Mountain, Bedford Co. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/p362v1ob.txt