Jane T. Nilan (1855-1943)

NILAN

Posted By: Debra Scott Hierlmeier (email)
Date: 12/3/2008 at 13:17:46

Mrs. Jane T. Nilan,
Oakland Woman Killed by Truck

Mrs. Jane T. Nilan, 87, suffered fatal injuries when she was struck by a tractor-trailer while crossing Highway No 6 in front of her home a half-mile west of Oakland at 5:30 pm Monday. She deied on the way to the hospital.

Driver of the tractor-trailer truck Roland Rollette, 30 of Beloit, Wisconsin is being held on a manslaughter charge pending a coroner’s inquest it was announced by Sheriff Riley C. Nelson.

Mrs. Nilan’s skull was fractured and both legs were broken. She was attended by Dr. K. L. Thompson of Oakland and brought to the Jennie Edmundson hospital in an ambulance. She never regained consciousness.

Sheriff Nelson said that investigation showed Mrs. Nilan darted between two trucks going west into the path of the tractor-trailer truck driven by Rollette, who was going east. Rollette estimated his speed at 30 to 32 miles an hour.

Mrs. Nilan, a native of Illinois, came to Pottawattamie county as a young bride and had lived continuously on the same farm. Her husband, Martin, died about fifteen years ago.

She is survived by a daughter, Mrs. William Marquardt of Avoca, two sons, Frank of Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada, and Wilbert of near Oakland; five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Funeral services were held today (Thursday) with burial in the Avoca cemetery.

CORONERS JURY CLEARS DRIVER

Roland Rollette, 30, Beloit, Wisconsin, driver of the tractor-trailer truck that struck and fatally injured Mrs. Jane T. Nilan, 87, while she was crossing Highway No 6 in front of her home a half mile west of Oakland Monday evening, was cleared of criminal responsibility by a coroner’s jury late Tuesday afternoon.

Following the inquest the coroner’s jury returned a verdict that “the accident to be unavoidable and shows no criminal negligence.”

From the Scrapbooks of Bessie Gross Gustafsen
Source: Avoca Journal Herald and Council Bluffs Nonpareil