Roy W.V. Ratcliff 1881-1907

RATCLIFF, HOWARD

Posted By: Bobbie (email)
Date: 6/2/2012 at 14:35:38

SWEETHEARTS DROWN IN
EACH OTHERS' ARMS, ALMOST
ON EVE OF WEDDING DAY

TUESDAY WAS TO HAVE
BEEN THEIR WEDDING DAY;
TODAY IS HER BIRTHDAY
Miss Minnie Howard was to have become the bride of Roy Ratcliff tomorrow.
Sunday they went on their last outing as sweethearts.
Today would have been the eighteenth anniversary of Miss Howard's
birth.
As the accompanying pictures show, Miss Howard was a beautiful
girl. She had a wealth of rich auburn hair, was of good figure and stylish
in appearance. Her womanly qualities were in keeping with her
appearance, her grieving friends said today. She was of a sweet and
happy disposition.
Ratcliff was a man of fine physique. He weighed 180 pounds, was
broad-shouldered and thick of chest. He had no bad habits, and by his
work at the Great Western became recognized as a valuable and promising
man.
By a strange turn of fate, the Howard-Ratcliff tragedy marks the
third death in a group of four young people, who, three months ago were close,
almost inseparable friends.
The quartette that planned and enjoyed many outings early in the last year was composed
of Ratcliff, Miss Howard, Everett W. Davis and Miss Helen Kelley. Davis was killed in a dynamite
explosion on July 4th. Of the old crowd of four, but one member remains.
Tuesday a sad funeral will be held. It will be that of Miss Howard
and Ratcliff.
It is not improbable, if Mrs. Ratcliff consents, that the remains of
the two young people will be buried side by side in Woodland cemetery.

The Des Moines Daily News, Des Moines, IA
Monday, Aug. 19, 1907