Wilna Frances (Lough) Brown (1911-1938)

LOUGH, BROWN, SMITH, WILBER

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 3/1/2014 at 20:01:29

From Nevada Evening Journal June 1938

Springfield, Mo., June 29--INS--Mrs. Robert Brown, 27-year-old wife of Lieut. Robert Brown, government meat inspector at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was killed instantly early today in an automobile accident near Halltown.

Her husband received back injuries and was brought to a Springfield hospital.

Lieut. Brown was driving, according to the officers who checked on the fatal accident, and dozed at the wheel, the car crashing into a telephone pole.

Mrs. Brown formerly lived in Nevada, Iowa.

The scene of the accident is about twenty miles west of Springfield.

-----

Mrs. Wilna Brown, wife of Lieutenant Robert J. Brown, is dead at Springfield, Mo., today as a result of a motor car accident on a highway west of Springfield at an early hour today, when her husband was seriously injured.

Word of the third death to occur in the family of her mother, Mrs. Mary Lough, within less than three months, reached here about 6:00 a. m. today, through a telephone message from the injured husband.

Few particulars of the accident are known here, other than those found in the press dispatch above.

On April 13 a brother-in-law of Mrs. Lough, Earl Wilber of Bemidji, Minn., was accidentally shot to death in his home.

Two months later, or on June 13, the aged father, W. F. Smith died at his home here and today comes the news of the tragic death of the daughter.

Mrs. Brown was a native daughter of Nevada. Born on a farm just north of town June 15, 1911, she was the only daughter of Bert and May Smith-Lough.

She attended the Nevada school and graduated with the class of 1929.

Within a few months after finishing school she accepted a position in the office of the Evening Journal as stenographer and proof reader and remained in that position until June of 1936.

At that time her husband Robert J. Brown, to whom she had been married two years before, graduated from the veterinary department of Iowa State College and had accepted a government position. He was assigned to meat inspection work in CCC camps and went first to Fort Leavenworth. From there he was later assigned to Springfield, Mo., and later transferred to St. Joe, but had recently been returned to headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, where he had been serving as assistant veterinarian.

From Nevada Evening Journal June 30, 1938

Funeral Services for Accident Victim Friday Afternoon

Funeral services for Mrs. Wilna Lough-Brown, 27, wife of Lieut. Robert J. Br a road near Springfield, Mo., early Wednesday morning will be held at the Methodist Episcopal church in Nevada Friday afternoon at 3:00, after which the body will be laid to rest in the Nevada cemetery.

The body is expected to arrive here Friday morning over the Rock Island and the injured husband, accompanied by his father Dr. Brown of Akron, are now on their way here by automobile from Springfield.

In a letter received today by Mr. and Mrs. Lough from S. M. Clark, physician who was in charge of Lieutenant Brown and was at the scene of the accident in which Mrs. Brown was instantly killed, he says in part: "I dressed the injuries of Lieutinent Brown and went to the scene of the fatal accident of your daughter.

"Seldom in my life have I been more sympathetic, for anyone than I am for Mr. Brown.

"After examining the scene of the accident, I am convinced that a flat tire was responsible for the accident. which occurred on a curve and high fill in the road.

"The poor man had evidently lost so much sleep studying for his examination and trying to have a short visit with this friends that he thought he may have dropped to sleep, but I doubt that being the cause of the accident, as it is very evident that he had a flat tire and that he threw on the brakes and did everything possible to avoid the accident.

"I want to assure you that thre was positively no evidence of intoxicaton.

"I mention this merely because such things are so often mentioned in connection with car accidents.

"I never saw him until this morning and since he is no friend of mine, and that I am writing this voluntarily, and without his knowledge or request, I sincerely hope that you will hold him blameless.

"My very brief acquaintance with him leads me to believe that he is a very excellent gentleman and I sincerely hope that he may not be seriously injured.

According to word reaching Mrs. Brown's parents her a few days ago the couple was about to start on a vacation and expected to spend last weekend on a fishing trip to Bagnall dam and from there to go on to Jefferson City, where Lieutenant Brown was to take an examination on Monday. From there they expected to visit with friends and were due back at Leavenworth to report for work on July 1.

Lieutenant Brown himself seriously injured, telephoned to Mrs. Brown's relatives in Nevada and also to his parents at Akron, in Plymouth county, where the father is a practicing veterinarian, advising them of the tragedy.

Lieutenant Brown stated that in case he was released by his own physician he expected to be in Nevada Thursday with the body, after which funeral rites will be arranged.

Mrs. Brown has been in Nevada twice during the last few months, having came up on April 13, to accompany her mother to Bemidgi, Minn., where they were called by the tragic death of Earl H. Wilber, brother-in-law of Mrs. Lough.

Again she had been called to Nevada on June 13, to attend the funeral of her grandfather, the late W. F. Smith.

She leaves besides her husband, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bert Lough and a brother, Frank Lough of Nevada and two aged grandmothers, Mrs. F. B. Lough of Nevada and Mrs. W. F. Smith, the latter now at the Wilber home at Bemidji, Minn., with her widowed daughter.

Mrs. Brown, well known in Nevada as Wilna Lough as a girl, had a wide circle of friends in Nevada. Ever bright and cheerful, she was a devoted daughter and ever had in mind the good of those who were near and dear to her. She will be most kindly remembered not only in her family circle, but also in the Evening Journal office where she spent several years, and in a wide circle of friends.