Starkville News 8-30-1940

Youth is Killed Near Starkville

16-Year old Columbus Boy Injured Fatally When Truck Overturns

Loose gravel on a curve just off Highway 45 on the Sessums-Starkville
road was blamed for the accidental death Tuesday of Joe Johnson, 
16-year old Lowndes County youth, who was killed instantly when the
watermelon truck in which he and two other youths were riding overturned.

Death was caused from internal injuries, Calvert funeral directors of West
Point reported at preparing the body for burial.  Funeral arrangements were
incomplete.  

The driver of the truck, said to have been named Heflin, received only
minor injuries, relatives of the death youth reported and the third member,
whose name was reported as Jones, suffered broken arms and other injuries.

The reports stated that the three had been selling melons in Starkville and,
at the time of the accident, were enroute to Artesia where they hoped to
dispose of the balance of their stock.

The death youth, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Johnson of Columbus, leaves
three brothers, L. C. Johnson of Mayhew and William E. and Felix, Jr. of
Columbus, and four sisters, Dorothy Johnson of Columbus, Mrs. Ollie Turner
and Mrs. Evelyn Stafford of Mayhew and Mrs. Cora Lee Andrews of Webster
county.

Obituary Photographed and donated by Mary Whitaker Davis.
Transcribe by Clare Herrick.