Extracted from The Fresno Bee Republican (Fresno, CA)
Saturday, December 1, 1956

Automobiles Hit Head On; Both Drivers Die

BAKERSFIELD, Kern Co. -- A headon crash of two automobiles 15 miles southwest of here at 5:25 PM yesterday brought death to both drivers. A third automobile was involved immediately in the pileup, and its two occupants suffered major injuries.

Dead are Bernie H. Haynes, 48, of Bakersfield, who was killed instantly, and Mark Lewis Deeter, 28, of 301 Pacific Street, Bakersfield, who succumbed two hours later in the Kern General Hospital here.

The highway patrol said Haynes, westbound in a sedan on US Highway 399, met the Deeter car as he tried to pass a third automobile and a truck. The truck escaped involvement in the wreck, but Fred Foster Sypolt, 46, of Oakland, driver of the third car, and his wife, Ruth, 39, were hurt.

The Sypolts were taken to West Side Hospital in Taft.

Deeter was a son of Mark O. Deeter, a widely known Bakersfield realtor. The younger Deeter recently released from the air force, was engaged with a brother, John, as the contractor in the construction of the new Cuyama High School.

Surviving are his son, Mark, Jr.; his parents, another brother, Wayne, in Saudi Arabia; and three sisters, all in Los Angeles County. The body is at the Greenlawn Mortuary here.