Richardson, Lt. Roy James 1933-1957

RICHARDSON, FRAZIER, WILBERG

Posted By: Paul Van Dyke-volunteer
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:34

Source: Hawarden Independent (4-4-1957)

Born: May 30, 1933
Died: March 26, 1957

SERVICES TO BE HELD FOR PLANE CRASH VICTIM

Funeral services for 1st Lt. Roy James Richardson, 23, who was killed Tuesday of last week in a plane crash over Germany, will be held at 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon at the Methodist Church in Hawarden, Reverend C.E. Custer officiating.

The body will arrive at the Barnard Funeral Home today (Thursday). Burial will be in Grace Hill Cemetery.

Lt. Richardson, a U.S. Air Force navigator, was on a practice bombing mission in the vicinity of Speyer, Germany, when his plane and another based from Semback Air Base, Germany, collided. One pilot and both navigators were killed. Lt. Richardson was based at Laon Air Force Base in France.

A son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Richardson of Stillwater, Minnesota, he was born in Hawarden May 30, 1933. He was baptized in the Methodist Church in Hawarden April 13, 1941.

He started school in Virginia County of South Dakota about six miles north of Hawarden. At the age of nine he and his parents moved to Tacoma, Washington, where they lived until 1940 when they moved to Stillwater, Minnesota.

Roy graduated from Stillwater High School in May, 1951. Prior to enlistment in the Air Force he was employed as a draftsman for the Minn-Honeywell Corporation of Minneapolis. He entered the Air Force March 2, 1953. He had practically completed four years of service.

Both of his grandmothers, Mrs. Mary Wilberg and Mrs. Mary Richardson, are Hawarden residents as well as a number of other relatives. His mother is the former Florence Frazier, who was raised in Hawarden.