Cecil Otto Abell

ABELL, LEATHERVAN, COLLINGS

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 10/13/2007 at 20:42:42

10/8/1949

CECIL ABELL, NAVY VETERAN, TAKES OWN LIFE HERE FRIDAY. Despondency over Tropical Disease Blames for Act.
Cecil O. ABELL, 42-year-old navy veteran, ended his own life in his home here yesterday afternoon with a shotgun blast through his mouth. Despondency over illness resulting from a tropical disease contracted during his naval service was blamed by police and Union county coroner, Dr. Cullen B. Roe of Afton, for his act.

Abell's body was found by his wife, Lulu, in the bedroom at their home at 505 North poplar street at 5:30 p.m. Friday. He had placed the muzzle of a 20 gauge shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, police said.

He had been in poor health as a result of the tropical disease since his release from service and had received treatment several times at the veteran hospital in Des Moines.

Assistant Police Chief Wayne Turner said Mrs. Abell found her husband's body when she reentered the house after hearing a sound as if someone had fallen. She did not hear the shot, Turner said she told him.

Mrs. Abell told police she and her husband had been talking a few minutes earlier. He went into the bedroom and she walked into the yard. She heard the sound and returned to the house to find him dead. He died instantly.

Funeral services will be held at McGregor Brothers and Coens funeral home here at 2 p.m. Monday. Rev. Myron E. Hayes, pastor of the Methodist church, will officiate. Theodore J. Martens post No. 1797, Veterans of Foreign Wars, will conduct military services at the grave on Graceland cemetery.

Cecil Otto Abell was born in Creston, February 22, 1907. He was the son of Charles H. and Anna Laura Leathervan Abell. He had lived in Creston all his life and had been employed as a trucker and taxi driver.

He was married at Greenfield, October 20, 1926, to Lula Collings, who survives. Also surviving are a son, Richard Elma Abell of Des Moines; two daughter, Barbara Joanne Abell and Linda Jean Abell, at home; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Abell of Creston; and five sisters, Mrs. Gilbert Scott in Kansas, Mrs. Berlin Harpin of Denver, Colo., Mrs. Elmer Profit of Centerville,