Richard Clyde Starkey 1926-1961

STARKEY, JACOBSON, APPEL

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 12/28/2010 at 01:06:26

Richard Starkey, 35, Killed in Accident Near Armstrong
Richard Starkey, 35, Fairmont, Minn. farmer, former resident of near Graettinger, was killed Thursday [November 9, 1961] night when the tractor he was driving overturned in a ditch a mile west and a quarter mile north of Armstrong. He was pinned beneath the tractor and apparently died instantly of a crushed skull and internal injuries according to authorities.

The accident, which was believed to have occurred about 8 p.m., was discovered by an Armstrong farmer who saw the tractor lights in the ditch of the gravel road. The tractor plunged into the east ditch, and overturned.

Starkey, who farmed in Martin county, just across the Minnesota state line, had been doing custom corn picking in the Armstrong area prior to the accident.

Funeral services were held Monday at 11 a.m. at Grace Lutheran church in Fairmont with the Rev. E. S. Ede officiating.

Richard Clyde Starkey was born August 20, 1926 at Graettinger, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Starkey, of near Wallingford. He received his education at Graettinger, graduating from high school here in 1943.

On Sept. 24, 1950 he was married to Donna Jacobson at Wallingford and the family began farming in Martin County following his discharge from the Army in May, 1953.

He was a member of the Grace Lutheran Church, Fairmont, the Masonic Lodge at Estherville and the Abu Bekr Shrine Lodge at Sioux City. He was also a member of the Wallingford American Legion.

Survivors include his wife, and two children, Carole, 9, and Roger, 7; his parents, one brother, Dale, rural Estherville, and one sister, Mrs. Paul Appel, Iowa City. (Graettinger Times, Graettinger, IA, November 16, 1961)