THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, February 21, 1952

 

Joseph Guess Smith, 34, former resident of Bunnell and owner and manager of a drive-in eating establishment at Jacksonville, N. C., was instantly killed and an airplane crash about 10:30 Tuesday morning near Williston.

Smith, a former second lieutenant in the Army Air Force, was piloting a two-place Ercoupe owned by Dexter Knight, also a drive-in owner-manager at Jacksonville, N. C.

The two men had left the North Carolina city Monday afternoon and landed on the Bunnell airfield to visit with friends and relatives here and at Flagler Beach.

Alone, Smith took off from the local airfield at 10:15 Tuesday morning to fly to Williston for an overnight visit with his parents. He had intended to land on the Williston airport and apparently was “buzzing” his parent’s home as a signal for them to meet him there when the ship went out of control from a height of about 50 feet.

It was reported by eye witnesses that the plane bounded through a treetop and some electric power lings, strike a fence and explode. His brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Smith, and a neighbor who were in the yard waving to him when the crash occurred, ran to the scene but were unable to reach the body which burned under the wreckage. The crash occurred within 200 yards of the home of his parents.

Funeral services were held at two o’clock Wednesday afternoon in the First Methodist Church of Williston and burial was in the Orange Hill Cemetery there.

Mr. Smith is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Smith of Williston; two brothers, Harry of Williston and Fletcher of St. Petersburg; and a former wife, Mrs. Lucille M. Smith of Bunnell.