Willis Earl Jones

     Funeral services for Willis Earl Jones, 28, who lost his life Saturday afternoon in a train-truck collision near Silver Creek, were held Tuesday afternoon at the Church of Christ in Norfolk.  John Filatreau, minister, officiated.

     Military rites were conducted at the church and at the grave in Prospect Hill Cemetery.

    Pallbearers were Raymond Halsey, Dallas Halsey, Elmer Wiedman, Clarence Weinberger, Arnold Tomasek and Alfred Volk.

    Willis Earl Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Glen Jones, was born April 30, 1925, at Norfolk.  The family moved to a farm near Battle Creek when he was a child. Later they returned to Norfolk where Glen Jones drove the Railway Express delivery truck for a number of years.  Last spring the family moved to a farm near Leigh where Willis Jones was living with his parents at the time of his death.

    Mr. Jones was a veteran of World War II, serving many months in the South Pacific theater.

    Mr. Jones is survived by his parents; two sisters, Mrs. Stanley Blank of Norfolk and Mrs. Frank Brown of Wisner, and three brothers, Leonard, Marvin and Melvin, all of Norfolk. A brother, Alfred, preceded him in death.

Rites Here Tuesday For Willis Jones

    Funeral services for Willis Jones,  28, son of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Jones, Leigh, formerly of Norfolk, who lost his life Saturday in a train-truck crash near Leigh, will be conducted at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home in Leigh and at 2:30 at the Norfolk Church of Christ by John Filatreau, minister.  
    Mr. Jones, who was not married, moved with his parents from Norfolk to Leigh a year ago.  The family resided on a Battle Creek farm before moving to Norfolk.
    Glenn Jones, the father, is a retired American Railway Express company employee.
     Mr. Jones is survived by his parents; two sisters, Mrs. Stanley Blank, 1214 Pasewalk Ave., and Mrs. Frank Brown, Wisner, and three brothers, Melvin, manager of Reid Hardware Company, Marvin and Leonard, all of Norfolk.

Five Killed, In Nebraska Car Crashes

Willis Jones, 28, Leigh, Formerly of Norfolk, Died
By the Associated Press

   Five traffic deaths were recorded in Nebraska in the weekend just closed bringing the state’s fatality total to 250 for the year.

   This made 18 highway deaths in the first 11 days of October.  By this time last year there had been 266 traffic deaths.

   Most recently reported death was that of Mrs. Charles Stump, 25, of Bertrand.  She was fatally injured late Saturday when the car she was driving and a gravel truck driven by Roger L. Luther, 23, of (3114 Avenue A) Kearney, side-swiped on a country road about  two miles northwest of Bertrand, the State Safety Patrol reported.  She died in a Lexington hospital Sunday.

   Passengers in Mrs. Stump’s car  were her two children, Timothy, 2, and Pamela, 9 months.  She also is survived by her husband and her parents Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Sargent of Bertrand.

 Macy Woman Killed

   The report of her death followed by only a few hours the death of a Macy, Neb., woman when a car driven by Sgt. Solomon Thomas, first ex-prisoner of war in Korea to be welcomed home to Nebraska, went out of control and crashed on Highway 73 north of Blair.

   The victim was Virginia Turner, 25.  Sgt. Thomas, 29, and George Thomas Jr., 20, also of Macy were hospitalized at Blair, but their injuries were not believed serious.

   State Safety Patrolman Raymond Koerber, Blair, said that when he arrived at the scene Miss Turner was dead inside the upright auto.

   He said Sgt. Thomas and his nephew, George, who also is home on Army furlough, told him she had been thrown from the car while it rolled 74 feet.  They said she still was alive after the accident and they placed her in the car.

Borrowed Car 

   Koerber said Thomas told him they were returning to Macy from Omaha in a car he had borrowed from another woman.

   Koerber said the car skidded 8 feet, sailed another 25 feet through the air, then landed on its side and rolled 74 feet, coming to a stop upright in a ditch.

   Sgt. Thomas was riding in a car involved in another, non-fatal accident near Omaha recently, but he was not driving the car. 

   Joan Royer, 19, Omaha was killed early Sunday when the car in which she was riding plowed into the rail of a bridge one mile south of Union.

   Her companion, A2 C. Vernon Huss, 19, of Biggs Air Force Base, Tex., was taken to a Nebraska City hospital in critical condition.

   Sheriff Tom Solomon said Huss, who has been visiting his father, Henry H. Huss of Nebraska City, may have gone to sleep at the wheel.

   George Eisner, 72 of Leigh and Willis Jones, 28, of Norfolk were killed when the truck they were driving was struck by a Union Pacific freight train at a country crossing three miles west of Silver Creek, Neb.  They were driving a truck owned by Henry Oldig of Leigh.

   The two men were en route back from visiting a farm owned by Mr. Oldig, where corn was being shelled.  Attached to the 1937 truck was a lumber wagon.  Only two wheels and two boards were left of the wagon after the crash.

  The crash tied up two mail trains until the wreckage could be cleared.

Norfolk Daily News, Monday, October 12, 1953