Walter Rodney Johnston 1951 - 1957

JOHNSTON, BUTLER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 6/19/2021 at 13:13:24

Sioux City Journal
22 May 1957

TRUCK KILLS HORNICK BOY, 5,

TWO BLOCKS FROM HIS HOME

Five-year-old Walter Rodney Johnston of Hornick was killed by a truck late Tuesday afternoon within two blocks of his home. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Johnston.

Rodney was riding his small bicycle at a intersection of a county road and the street on which he lived when he was struck by a two-ton truck of the Consumer Feed Co. of Sioux City.

Two employees of the feed company riding in the truck said they did not see the boy. The driver was Art McManigal. 24, 1411 W. Fifth street. The other occupant was Darrell Dunagan of Sloan.

Dr. Thomas L. Coriden, Woodbury County Coroner, said the boy died of internal and external hemorrhage as a result of a crushed chest and a right shoulder injury. He also suffered head cuts.

McManigal told Deputy Sheriff George V. Grimesey and Highway Patrolman Walter L. Ranard he was driving west on the county road at the point where the Hornick street intersects from the south when he heard a "thud."

Looking back in his rear-view mirror, he saw the child lying in the road and applied his brakes, McManigal said. Dunagan told the officers he was looking at a notebook and did not see the boy. The body of the boy was on a county road at the edge of town two feet from the south side of the road. The truck was traveling west. The boy's grandmother witnessed the mishap from a porch of a home near the scene.

The boy's mother was attending a church ladies aid meeting at the same residence.

Grimesey said the truck traveled 79 feet after striking the boy before the brakes were applied. Skid marks indicated the car moved 59 feet more before coming to a stop. The truck driver said he had been driving about 30 miles an hour at the time of the accident.

McManigal and Dunagan said they were driving toward Sloan after having made a delivery at a farm.

Surviving besides the parents are two sisters, Carol Ann and Susan, and the grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. John Butler, both of Hornick.

The body was taken to the Wood funeral home at Whiting, Ia.

Sioux City Journal
23 May 1957

Services Today for Boy Killed in Hornick Crash

Funeral services for Walter Rodney Johnston, 5, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Johnston, who was killed near his borne at Hornick Tuesday afternoon when struck by a truck while riding a bicycle, will be at 2 p. m. today at the Methodist church in Hornick.

Rev. F. G. Clark will officiate, and burial will be in the Holly Springs cemetery under direction of the Wood funeral home of Whiting, la.

Wednesday county officials returned to the scene of the mishap to complete their investigation, George Grimesey, deputy sheriff, stated.