COLTON, Richard L. 1956-1974

COLTON, LANCE, SMITH

Posted By: COUNTY COORDINATOR
Date: 10/9/2013 at 00:18:35

#1:

ORCHARD, IOWA — Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Osage for Richard Lee Colton Jr., 18, of rural Orchard, who was killed in a car-tractor crash Thursday afternoon near New Haven.

A Rosary will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, at the Champion Funeral Home in Osage. Burial will be in Sacred Heart Cemetery.

Survivors are his father, Richard, with whom he lived; his mother, Mrs. William Lance of Cabot, Arkansas; two sisters, Eleanore and Colleen Colton, and three brothers, Kevin, Leslie, and Russell, all of Cabot, Arkansas; his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Everett Smith of Lone Rock, Arkansas; and his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Gertrude Colton of Osage.

He was a 1974 graduate of Riceville High School.

[Waterloo Courier, Friday, October 11, 1974, Waterloo, Iowa]
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#2:

Cars hit tractor;
Man Dies, 2 hurt

NEW HAVEN, IOWA - One man was killed and two others seriously injured Thursday afternoon in a collision in which two autos struck a farm tractor.

Richard Lee Colton, 18, died instantly of multiple injuries when the car he was driving collided with the rear of a tractor driven by David Louis Fox, 33, of rural Osage.

The accident occurred at 6:15 p.m. on a blacktop road two miles south of New Haven. The Mitchell County sheriffs office said autos driven by Colton and Alvin Norman Amble, 19, of rural New Hampton, were traveling south on the road when they topped the crest of a hill and saw the tractor at the bottom of the hill.

The sheriffs office said Colton apparently braked, and his car swerved from one side of the road to another, then it collided with the tractor. Fox was thrown from the machine.

The Amble auto, which had been behind the Colton car, also attempted to stop, but also struck the tractor. The sheriffs office said the tractor literally disintegrated from the two impacts. Both autos were destroyed.

Fox was listed in satisfactory condition at a Charles City hospital Friday with head injuries and cuts.

Amble was listed in critical condition at a Rochester, Minnesota, hospital with head, face and internal injuries.

The sheriffs office said Colton and Amble were apparently on their way home after leaving their work as tilers. Witnesses who saw the autos before the collision told the sheriffs office the cars had been traveling side by side before the Amble car pulled in behind the Colton car to avoid oncoming traffic.

[Waterloo Courier, Friday, October 11, 1974, Waterloo, Iowa]
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#3:

A three-vehicle accident near New Haven in Mitchell County last Thursday night claimed a second life Sunday. Alvin Amble, 19, New Hampton, died in a Rochester, Minnesota, hospital of head and internal injuries. Richard Colton, Jr., 17*, of Orchard, died shortly after the accident.

Source: Oelwein Daily Register, October 14, 1974

* Richard was actually 18.
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#4:

Gravestone at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Osage:
Inscription: Richard L. Colton, Jr., August 14, 1956 - October 10, 1974

On the same stone: Richard L. Colton, Sr., March 12, 1935 - June 10, 1991.