Online Source: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/franklin/newspapers/locomotive1943.txt
Extracted from The Frankin Sun (Winnsboro, LA)
5 Auto-Locomotive Collision Victims Interred Tuesday in Central Cemetery
Two Others of Waller-Townsend Families Seriously Injured in Tragic Mishap Friday
Five Franklin Parish victims of an auto-train collision Friday near Forrest
Hill were interred Tuesday afternoon in Central cemetery near Wisner,
following joint open-air funeral rites at the Central church.
Two others were seriously injured in the accident which cost the
lives of:
Seriously injured but alive Wednesday afternoon were: Hiram B. Waller,
10-year-old son of the W. A. Wallers, in the Winnsboro sanitarium
with both legs fractured and other major injuries, and Leamon Carroll,
17-year-old son of the W. E. Townsends, now in a critical condition at
a Pineville hospital.
Officiating at the funeral and burial rites, which were under direction
of Mulhearn Funeral home, were the Rev. Tom Ratcliff, the Rev. J. H.
Keyes, the Rev. Mr. Polk and the Rev. L. McLemore.
All of the victims were residents of the Gilbert vicinity.
Four Die Instantly
Mr. and Mrs. Townsend and daughter, Billie Cleo, and Mrs. Waller were
killed when the car crashed into a locomotive of the Red River and
Gulf railroad, adjacent to a portion of the Camp Claiborne military
establishment.
Mr. Waller and the two boys, H. B. Waller and Leamon Carroll, were
taken to a Camp Claiborne hospital, and the former died within a few
hours.
The bodies were brought Saturday to Mulhearn Funeral home here,
where they remained until time for the last rites Tuesday afternoon.
The Carroll youth was transferred to a Pineville hospital and the Waller
boy to Winnsboro.
Car Hits Locomotive
The tragedy occurred about 3:30 p.m. Friday as the car, enroute
from Port Neches, Texas, where the Wallers and Townsends were
employed in war work, crashed into the side of the locomotive at
a point about where the steps enter the cab.
Reports from the scene of the tragedy indicate that the driver's view
probably was obstructed by a hill at the approach to the crossing,
which the train reportedly entered from a gully. The car also
apparently was traveling faster than a normal rate of speed, the
force of the collision indicted, and it was raining at the time.
Mr. Townsend is survived by two daughters, Mrs. E. L. McCaa
and Mrs. W. L. McMahon, both of Wisner; a step-son, the critically
injured Leamon Carroll, three brothers, all of Mississippi, and a
sister, Mrs. R. C. Myers, Winnsboro.
Mrs. Townsend's survivors include her son by a former marriaie
[sic marriage], the Carroll youth; her father, Hiram Lofton of
Sterlington, and two sisters.
Billie Cleo Townsend's survivors are the same as those of her
parents.
Mr. Waller is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Marcus Emfinger of
Wisner and Mrs. Dodds D. Lee of Bude, Miss.; five brothers, H. B.
Waller of Winnsboro, John L. Waller of Gilbert, A. J. Waller of
Port Neches, Texas, James Leroy Waller of the U.S. navy,
stationed at San Diego, Calif., and Charlie Waller of Sandy Hook,
Miss.; three half-sisters, Juanita Waller, Mary Fay Waller and
Alice Gay Waller, all of Sandy Hook, and his son, the injured
H. B. Waller.
Mrs. Waller's survivors, besides her son, are her mother, Mrs.
Minnie Garrett of Jackson, Miss., and two sisters, Mrs. McCaa
and Mrs. McMahon of Wisner.
Mrs. Waller was Mr. Townsend's daughter, as was the deceased
Billie Cleo Townsend.
Thursday, September 23, 1943
William Edward Townsend, 61; Mrs. William Edward
Townsend, 37; Billie Cleo Townsend, their 10-year-old daughter;
William A. Waller, 29, and Mrs. William A. Waller, 26.