Lance R. Whitefield (1906-1944)

WHITEFIELD

Posted By: Debra Scott Hierlmeier (email)
Date: 12/8/2008 at 09:26:31

Lancelot Robert Whitefield
(October 24, 1906 - July 1944)

Electrocuted as He Works online at Council Bluffs Friday

Lance Whitefield, 37, 1511 South Ninth Street, Council bluffs, a former Avoca resident, was electrocuted Friday afternoon when he came in contact with a high tension wire carrying 6,600 volts at the top of a pole at the Floyd Ochambaugh farm a mile north of Grange cemetery in Boomer township near Crescent.

The rescue unit from the Council Bluffs fire department worked an hour and a half on Whitefield’s body in an effort to revive him, but he was pronounced dead by Dr. David Krebbs of the Jennie Edmundson hospital, who was brought to the scene.

Whitefield suffered burns on both hands and on the right side of his chest.

He and Louis Carlson, employees of the Jenson electric company of Council Bluffs, were engaged in rewiring the Ochambaugh farm. Whitefield started up the pole to string a new wire. As he neared the top Carlson shouted a warning to him to be careful. Whitefield was holding to a pipe that ran up the side of the pole and his other hand accidentally came into contact with the high tension wire. Fire shot out of his hands and feet.

Carlson pulled on a rope that was tied onto Whitefield, jerking his body loose from the high tension wire. His body was then brought to the ground.

Mr. Whitefield formerly was employed by the Iowa State Telephone Company in Avoca. He is survived by his widow and two daughters, Jean, 2, and Diane, 3; a son, Lanny, 5; his father Walter Whitefield; two brothers, Frank in the Army at Camp Blanding, Florida, and Fred in California; two sisters, Grace Whitefield of Freeport, Texas, and Mrs. Beck Anderson.

Funeral services were held from the Tyler funeral home in Council Bluffs on Wednesday and a short service was held at Graceland cemetery in Avoca Thursday morning.

From the Scrapbooks of Bessie Gross Gustafsen
Source: Avoca Journal Herald