Extracted from The Shreveport Times (Shreveport, LA)
Sunday, July 1, 1956

Wreck Kills Girl; Driver Is Charged

RINGGOLD, June 30 (Special) -- Nineteen-year-old Frances Irene Weeks of Ringgold was killed early today when the car in which she was riding spun out of control at high speed near here and overturned five times along Hwy. 154.

State Trooper A. E. Whitman of Arcadia said a complaint charging negligent homicide had been filed against the driver of the vehicle, Walter M. Nettle of Ringgold. Nettles, a student at Louisiana Tech at Ruston, was treated for slight injuries at a local clinic and later released.

Authorities [said] he and Miss Weeks were returning to Ringgold from a party on Lake Bistineau about 12:15 a.m. The automobile, which officers said was traveling at an "excessively high rate of speed," went out of control on a curve five miles west of Ringgold and plunged into a ditch.

The car overturned five times and traveled 645 feet before coming to a halt.

Miss Weeks' body was found lying in a ditch some 75 feet from where the 1956 model car came to a halt. Trooper Whitman said she was tossed from the car as it overturned the second time.

Dr. R. C. Ferguson, Bienville Parish coroner, said the girl died of a broken neck. She was pronounced dead on arrival at a local clinic.

Miss Weeks, a 1955 graduate of Ringgold High School, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Travis Knotts. She made her home with her mother and stepfather here.