Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Gentry, Donald W., 1972 

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D.W. GENTRY DIES IN CRASH

   NEWSOMS - Southampton County Game Warden D.W. Gentry, 36, of Courtland and 
another man were killed Tuesday night when their single engine plane crashed 
into a farm pond near here.

   Killed with Gentry in the two passenger plane was game warren Alan C. 
Flippo, 26, of Virginia Beach.  Flippo was listed as the pilot.

   According to F.N. Satterly, information officer for the Virginia Commission 
of Game and Inland Fisheries, the last radio report from the plane came at 
9:45 p.m. Tuesday.  Satterly said the craft was on a routine law enforcement 
mission looking for illegal hunters.

   The plane was reported missing late Tuesday night when it failed to return 
to the Portsmouth-Chesapeake Airport.

   Authorities were unable to locate the plane until its wreckage was sighted 
at 10 a.m. Wednesday by the Southampton County sheriff's department and 
members of the state game commission.

   According to Civil Air Patrol Capt. Joseph Sanson, Franklin, three aircraft 
from the C.A.P. in Portsmouth and a helicopter from the State Police took part 
in the search.

   Ken Zelowski, accident prevention counselor for the Federal Aeronautics 
Administration who investigated the crash, said the plane's engine apparently 
stopped in flight and the plane lost altitude.  It glided into a tree along a 
farm pond on the Ralph L. Porter property about a mile from Newsoms.

   The plane split open, dumping Flippo on the bank, hit another tree on the 
pond's edge, burst into flames and came to rest in about a foot  of water.

   Gentry's body was found inside the burned out wreckage.

   An on-site observer said the plane came down just 100 yards from a large 
field where it might have been able to land safely.

   The dead men's remains were taken to the Southampton Memorial Hospital 
morgue.

****************************************************************************** 

DONALD WYATT GENTRY

   COURTLAND - A funeral service for Donald Wyatt Gentry, 36, of RFD 1, 
Courtland, was held Friday at 4 p.m. in W.J.M. Holland and Sons Funeral Home, 
Franklin, by the Rev. C.B. King and the Rev. Richard A. Burgdoll.

   Burial was held Sunday at 2 p.m. in Meadowbrook Church Cemetery, Hot 
Springs, N.C.

   Gentry died Tuesday, Dec. 19 in a plane crash near Newsoms.

   A native of Asheville*, N.C., he was a son of Wyatt H. and Mrs. Parasadie 
Edwards Gentry of Hendersonville, N.C. and the husband of Mrs. Lorie Gregory 
Gentry.

   He was employed as a game warden for the state of Virginia.

   Besides his wife and parents, he is survived by four daughters, Linda Carol 
Gentry, Janet Gentry, Donna Gentry and Barbara Jean Gentry; one son Donald 
Wyatt Gentry, Jr., all of Courtland; one sister Mrs. Viola G. Brevard of 
Hendersonville, N.C.; two brothers, Joel Gentry of Jackson, Miss. and David 
Gentry of Chatham.


Donald Wyatt GENTRY, of Courtland, Southampton Co. Game Warden, 
NC* native, killed in plane crash 19 Dec 1972, near Newsoms, age 36, 
interred in Meadowbrook Church Cemetery, Hot Springs, Madison Co., NC, 
   21 Jul 1972, 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Dec. 21, 1972, A-1; 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Dec. 28, 1972, B-2 

Another obit is attached to Donald's Find A Grave Memorial, #110156472, 
   as is a photo of his & his widow's monument. 

*That obit gives native of Madison Co., rather than Asheville. 

His parents are buried in Shepherd Memorial Park (Olivet Sect.), 
   Naples, Henderson Co., NC.  His mother's obit is attached to her 
   Find A Grave Memorial, #116367836.  A photo of their marker is also 
   attached, as it is to the Memorial, #107804872, for his father, who 
   was a preacher with the Church of the Nazarene - Holiness. 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), 
and re-formatted by File Manager. 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/g536d1ob.txt