Death Notices Mid-Air Crash Leaves Two Dead; Lawton Pilot, Fletcher Man Okay
Ponca City
(UPI)
Investigators probed
through the crumbed
wreckage of a
light plane in a
northern Oklahoma wheat field today in
an effort to
determine what caused
a mid-air collision
that killed an
Oklahoma City couple.
Ned and
Lila
Shoffner, parents of five
children, were killed when
their
plane scraped the bottom of
another light plane 6, 500 feet in the air and
crashed
near Ponca City Monday.
Two men in
the other
plane escaped injury when they landed
their damaged craft at the Ponca
City airport.
There was
speculation
Shoffner may have been
blinded by the sun and failed to see the
other plane until
too
late.
Shoffner, 30, vice
president of the Shoffner Sand and Gravel Co. of
Oklahoma,
and his wife, Lila,
30,
both of Oklahoma
City were killed instantly when
their plane plummeted to the earth after the mid-air
collision.
Escaping injury were
the pilot of the
other plane, John Potts, of Lawton, and
his passenger, H.
D. Dalton, a Fletcher,
Okla., funeral home
director.
The Shoffners had
traded in a Cessna on the
2-year-old Piper Commanche
last Saturday. They left Sunday
for Kansas
City and were returning home when the
accident
occurred.
The highway
patrol said the Shoffner plane
came
up under the Potts
plane, striking the underside and
causing considerable
damage. The collision
occurred about four miles from the
Ponca City
airport.
The
Shoffner plane
crashed in a
wheat field four miles east of
Tonkawa, some five miles from where the planes
collided.
It sank about four feet
into the soft ground
and wreckage was scattered over a 1 ½
square mile aea.
The other plane made a belly
landing, without
wheels, at the airport. Dalton and Potts
were en route to
North Dakota
to
pick up a body to return to Fetcher.
"We had just
checked in with the tower at
Ponca City and I had closed
my eyes and settled back in my
seat
to catch 40 winks." Dalton said.
"The next thing I knew there was a terrific
bang and I was bounced severly in my seat…. I thought we
had hit
a goose, but the pilot
told me we had struck
another
aircraft."
"I never did
see the plane. By the time I
came to
my senses, I looked
out the right-hand side and we didn't
have any landing
gear."
"We
came in without any
wheels. We both
had to stand on the left rudder pedal to
keep it
under control."
Dalton
added.
Death
by Drowning. -- The Chicaskia
near this place claimed another victim last
Saturday, in
the person of Frank Bicksler, a young man living southeast of the
city. Mr. Bicksler, in company with several other men, was
in swimming Saturday
afternoon and sank from their view
without warning and completely disappeared
despite their
efforts to recover the body. Saturday afternoon and evening and
all day Sunday searchers worked in vain trying to locate
the drowned man.
Explosives and other means were used but
all seemed futile. Early Monday morning
some boys found
the body in a measure lodged or held by the overlapping branches
of some trees. They fastened the body to the
tree and
came to town to notify
the undertaker. Chas. Richards and
Undertaker Fyffe went after the body and it
was prepared
for interment. Bicksler was a single man and made his home with his
parents on the farm commonly known as the Charley Goetting
place. The
funeral
was at the farm home southeast of
the city Monday afternoon, conducted by Rev
Woodward of
the Methodist church, and the body was taken to the oldhome in Iowa,
Tuesday, for burial.--Blackwell Times Record 16 July
1904
WILLIAM HENRY BONHAM
Funeral services for William Henry
Bonham, 72, who died suddenly at his home, 815 E. College, at 6:00 P.M. Thurday,
will be held at the Roberts mortuary Saturday at 4 P.M. with Rev. E.W. Harrison,
pastor of the Christian Church officiating. Burial will be in the IOOF cemetery.
Mr. Bonham was born in Ohio, Nov. 4, 1866 and had been a resident of Blackwell
since 1924, coming here from Cherokee.
Surviving are his wife Mrs. Effie
Bonham, a daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Day of Jefferson: four sons, Charles, who
resides in Montana, Johnnie of Blackwell, Howard of Enid, and Earl, who makes
his home in Arkansas: a sister Mrs. Lizzie Rogers of Mt. Hope, Kans., and a
brother, George Bonham of Supply, Okla.
EFFIE BONHAM'S SERVICE
IS SET WEDNESDAY AT 2
Mrs. Effie J. Bonham of Blackwell died at 11:05
a.m. Monday in Hillcrest Manor Nursing Home where she had resided for the past
four years. Her residence was 707 W. Dewey. She was 86. The funeral service will
be at 2 P.M. Wednesday in Barr Funeral Home chapel with Rev. Lew Davis, pastor
of the First Christian Church, officiating. Grandsons will be pallbearers.
Burial will be in the IOOF Cemetery.
Mrs. Bonham had lived in the Blackwell
area since 1924 coming to the community from Lamont. She was born March 14, 1885
at Cherryvale, Kans. and was a member of the Christian Church. She was married
to William Henry Bonham on March 22, 1903 at Grant City, He preceded her in
death in 1939. Also, preceding her in death were one son, Howard; a daughter,
Rosa Conill; 2 brothers and two sisters. Survivers are three sons, Charlie
O. Bonham, Drummond, Mont.; Johnie W. Bonham, Blackwell, and Pearl D. Bonham of
Billings; one daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Day of Elkhart, Kans. 23 grandchildren, 53
great grandchildren and 23 great-great-grandchildren. and one brother Roy
Hempsmyer, of Enid.