THE FLAGLER TRIBUNE
Bunnell, Florida
Thursday, January 14, 1937

 

Three person’s dead and one painfully injured from a collision between a small coupe and a lumber truck near Shell Bluff on State Road 28 early Tuesday morning. The dead are Mrs. Lillie Watkins, 28, of Shell Bluff, Miss Lucy Wilson, 14, of Ellenton, Georgia and J. E. Roberts, 24 of Green Cove Springs. Shelton Brooks formerly of Bunnell but now residing in Palatka received a broken arm with minor injuries.

The lumber truck was driven by Brooks with Roberts as a passenger was proceeding west on the highway, according to R. L. Smith and his son, R. B. Smith, eye witnesses to the accident, when Mrs. Watkins drove her small coupe directly into the moving lumber truck. The impact threw the smaller vehicle around and it occupants out of it and onto the truck and highway. Both women were apparently killed instantly. The truck cab was demolished by the impact and by the shift of the load of lumber. Roberts riding in the truck with the driver was fatally injured by some projection in the truck, presumably the gear shift lever, he being torn open from the abdomen down. He lived, however until late that afternoon in a Palatka hospital where he and Brooks were carried following the crash.

A coroner’s inquest was held Tuesday night, Will Richardson as coroner and K. W. Lord, James H. Lynch, R. W. Deen, Jr., Miller Teters, Joe Birch and Lee Walker, whose verdict stated in substance that Mrs. Watkins, Miss Wilson and J. E. Roberts came to their death by collision of the two vehicles and that Shelton Brooks, driver of the truck, was exonerated of all blame for the crash.

Funeral service for Roberts was held Wednesday afternoon at Green Cove Springs, where he is survived by a wife and two small children. He was a cousin of Shelton Brooks and Mrs. Louis Woods of Bunnell.

Mrs. Watkins is survived by her husband, Jessie Watkins of Shell Bluff; her mother, Mrs. J. W. Thornton, a sister, Mrs. Lloyd Dempsey, two brothers, Lacy and Oscar Thornton, all of Flagler county.

Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Watkins and Miss Wilson have not be completed, but it assumed that bodied will be shipped to their former homes in Georgia.