Kenneth Eugene SMITH

SMITH, CLAUSEN, THOMPSON, JONES

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:07:02

Kenneth Eugene Smith
16 January 1927 --- 16 August 1959

Kenneth Eugene Smith was born January 16, 1927 [in Troy Township, Wright county, Iowa], the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Smith. He was baptized August 5, 1938. He attended the Eagle Grove high schools until he joined the U. S. Navy in January 1944, where he served overseas for four years. After the service in the Navy, he joined the Air Force and served four years more in Korea and in Formosa.

At the time of his death on August 16, 1959 he was employed by the Evans-Kay Construction Co. of Clarion. The unfortunate accident that took his life occurred on the Great Western railroad near the town of Vincent, Iowa.

He is survived by his parents, by six brothers, Lloyd of Los Angeles, Calif.; Garold and Dale of Eagle Grove; Earl of West Bend; John of Bloomington, Ill.; and Donald now in the U. S. Air Force; also, by two sisters, Bernice of Portland, Ore., and Mrs. James Clausen of Goldfield.

Funeral services were held Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock at the Kastler Funeral Home in charge of Rev. Roy Cox. Interment was in Rose Hill cemetery.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
Thursday, August 20, 1959

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Kenneth Smith, 32, Eagle Grove, was killed a half mile northeast of Vincent early Sunday morning when hit by a Chicago & Great Western freight train.

Smith's body was found about noon Sunday after part of his trousers was noticed hanging under a box car in Omaha that morning. The box car was in a train that had passed through Vincent about 4 a.m.

In a pocket of the trousers was Smith's billfold.

After the trousers and billfold were found, Great Western officials in Omaha radioed the Clarion control tower that a man had apparently been hit by a train in this vicinity.

Wright and Webster county law officials were notified, and a later westbound freight train was told to be on the lookout for a body. The crew of this train found Smith's body lying between the tracks.

Leonard Olsen, Vincent town marshal, reported that Smith and three other men had created a disturbance near the Farmers Coop elevator there about l:30 a.m. Sunday. The four were on their way from Fort Dodge to Eagle Grove at the time.

Olsen investigated and found the four men in a car. There was evidence that they had been drinking.

He left the four in custody of another Vincent man while he called the Webster county sheriff's office for assistance. While Olsen was away making the call, Smith left the car and escaped.

The other three men, two of them from Fort Dodge and one from Clarion, were turned over to Webster and Wright county authorities and later released.

Law officials were not able to determine whether Smith was hit by the train while walking along the tracks or trying to board the train. The Webster county coroner ruled the death was accidental.

Smith had been employed by the Evans-Kay Construction in Clarion the past three weeks.

Funeral services were held for Smith Tuesday morning at the Kastler Funeral Home. The Rev. Roy H. Cox, pastor of the Methodist church, conducted the services and interment was in Rose Hill cemetery.

Smith is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Smith of Eagle Grove; two sisters, Mrs. James Clausen of Goldfield and Mrs. Iver Thompson of Portland, Ore.; six brothers, Dale and Gerald of Eagle Grove; Lloyd of Los Angeles, Calif.; John of Bloomington, Ill.; Earl of West Bend; and S/Sgt. Don of Elgin Air Force Base in Florida; and his maternal grandfather, John W. Jones of Lake City.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
Thursday, August 20, 1959

Source --- Paul Wilde