Extracted from The Laurel Leader-Call (Laurel, MS)
Freak Accident Fatal To Laurel Housewife
By Jim Sellers
A 32-year-old Laurel housewife and mother of three was killed Tuesday afternoon in a freak traffic mishap at the 13th Avenue overpass on Laurel Thruway, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said.
Killed was Mrs. Jim C. (Hilda Grace) Johnson, 31, 111 Pineview Drive, Laurel.
Injured were Woodrow R. Walters, 46, 108 Ferrill St., Laurel, and the victim's son, Jeffrey, 10. (This was the second Jones County resident killed since Sunday.)
Mississippi Highway Patrolman James E. Thompson said Walters, driver of a truck involved in the accident, suffered possible hip and internal injuries. He was hospitalized at Jones County Community Hospital.
THROWN 75 FEET
The victim's son, Jeffrey, escaped virtually unharmed except for a brush burn on the right arm despite being tossed 75 feet from the vehicle along the highway.
The accident occurred, the officer said, when the car driven by Mrs. Johnson left the left side of the Thruway, traveled a distance along the neutral ground, and then veered back onto the Thruway into the path of a truck driven by Walters. The officer said the Johnson car, traveling north, then hit the left front of the truck, veered again back to the left, traveling a distance until it struck the overpass abutment.
The officer said Mrs. Johnson's son was thrown from the Johnson car after it struck the truck. The boy's body, Thompson said, skidded along the highway 75 feet landing finally on a shoulder of the highway. The boy's glasses and cap which he was wearing when he was tossed from the car, were still on when he landed on the shoulder of the highway, the officer said.
KILLED INSTANTLY
Mrs. Johnson, apparently killed outright in the accident, was pronounced dead on arrival at Jones County Community Hospital.
The Johnson boy suffered but a minor brush burn, was treated at Community Hospital, and released despite his narrow escape.
But for the grace of God he would have been killed," the officer said.
Mrs. Johnson, a native of Jones County, was a member of the Big Creek Baptist Church. Prior to moving to Laurel six months ago, Mrs. Johnson and her family had lived in Soso.
Funeral services will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Thompson Funeral Home Chapel with the Revs. Dee Parker and Luther Parrish officiating. Burial will be in the Big Creek Cemetery.
Survivors include, other than the victim's husband and son, two daughters, Rebecca and Cheryl Johnson, Laurel; her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Dock Ellzey, Soso; three sisters, Mrs. H. L. McKinley, Soso; Mrs. Ray Gracia [sic Garcia], Monterey, Calif.; and Mrs. Odell Hall, Atlanta, Ga.
Pallbearers will be George Bridges, Henry Bridges, J. C. Williams, Billy R. Hutto, D. W. Langley, and S. M. Watkins.
Wednesday, November 6, 1963
Staff Writer