Ernest Merrill Root

ROOT, HAINES, HUGHES, AHNEN

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 3/27/2006 at 16:43:27

Winterset Madisonian
January 1973

ERNEST ROOT, 39, IS FIRST TRAFFIC FATALITY

Madison county recorded its first traffic fatality of 1973 on Friday, Jan. 12 as a pickup truck driven by Ernest Merrill Root of rural Booneville slid off a rock road one mile west of the Des Moines reservoir in Lee township.

Mr. Root was pronounced dead at the scene from injuries he received when his truck rolled over in the ditch, pinning him beneath the cab.

The accident occurred near the Root home at 4:30 p.m. as Mr. Root was doing the evening chores.

The Root family has lived in Lee Township for four years where Mr. Root owned and managed a farm and was employed by the Container Haulaway Corp. of Des Moines as a mechanic-truck driver.

Mr. Root was born on Dec. 14, 1933 in Fontanelle, Iowa to Elton A. and Mabel Haines Root. He was married to Robert Hughes on Feb. 18, 1953. The Root family lived in Des Moines for 12 years before moving to Madison county in 1969.

Surviving Mr. Root are his wife; a son, Elton Root of Winterset; and 5 daughters, Rebecca, Martha, Grace, Amber and Trudy, all of whom live at home. Also surviving are Mr. Root's mother and a sister, Mrs. Carl Ahnen of Greenfield.

Funeral services were held Jan. 15 at 11:00 a.m. from the McLaren Funeral Home in West Des Moines. The Rev. Charles Wretling, Cumming Community Church, conducted the services. Burial was at 2:00 p.m. at the Bryant Cemetery near Fontanelle.