Explosion Kills Ordnance Plant Woman Worker
Burlington, Ia. -- Mrs. Virginia Harriett Johnston, 27, Muscatine, Ia., mother of five children, was killed instantly in an explosion at the Iowa ordnance pant Thursday.
Officials said that Mrs. Johnston, working alone in a barricaded loading room, was killed when a charge of prime mixture detonated while she was reloading a hopper of charging machinery.
The force of the explosion blasted through a small door in the machinery and struck Mrs. Johnston in the chest, the public relations office said.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo IA - July 15, 1943
