GILLILAND, Wendell Ray
Source: "Obituaries - Year - 1950 Volume B" from the Covington Public Library. 13 February 1958
Fountain County recorded its third traffic fatality for 1958 shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday when Wendell Ray Gilliland, 19, Kingman, was killed instantly two miles north of Veedersburg on U.S. 41.
Gilliland was a flagman for a crew of state highway department workers repairing cracks in the highway. They were working north of the Homer Woods farm at the time of the accident.
The deceased, a 1956 graduate of Kingman High School, died of injuries suffered when he was pinned beneath a highway department pick-up, The pick-up was struck in the left rear comer by a semi driven by George Libka, 45, River Rouge, Mich.
Funeral services, for Wendell Ray Gilliland were held from the Woodrow Funeral Home at 2 p.m. Saturday. The body was then moved overland to the home of Lee Gilliland of Somerset, Ky., an uncle, where it lay in state prior to burial in Sears Cemetery at Stab, Ky.
Libka told Fountain County Coroner Charles Fishero, Gilliland was standing at the left comer of the pick-up truck when he waved him by. Libka related he started into the northbound lane when he saw a car coming at him. He pulled the semi back into his lane to let the car past and he returned momentarily to the southbound lane before his tractor struck the pickup. He related the flagman ran around the truck toward the front just before the wreck.
The pick-up was parked about 300 feet north of a crew of six who were pouring patching compound into cracks in the highway. The pick-up stopped 102 feet south of the point of impact. State Trooper Stan Kenny reported. He said the semi stopped approximately 300 ft. south of the point of impact.
The pick-up and tractor on the semi were described as total losses. The tractor caught fire when gasoline was splashed on it. The Veedersburg fire department was called to put out the fire. It was controlled before it reached the load of core bonding compound in the trailer slated for a foundry at Danville, Ill. Damage to the trailer was estimated at $1,000.
Libka, with the aid of the highway crew, crawled from the burning cab uninjured.
All rushed up the road to the wrecked pick-up, moved it from Gilliland's body, and found him dead.
The highway crew, according to Coroner Fishero, did not recall seeing a car pass the scene before the accident as Libka described, but did not rule out the possibility that there was one.
Members of the crew were Clarence Brown, Hillsboro, R.R. 1; Robert Riley, Veedersburg, R.R. 4; Freddie Andrews, Veedersburg, R.R. 2; Warren Randolph, Kingman, R.R. 2; Raymond Ocheltree, Kingman, and Frank Eudy, Veedersburg, R.R. 2.
Libka was charged with reckless driving. Appearing before Justice Hugh Miller at Veedersburg, hearing on the charge was set for Feb. 27.
Investigating with Trooper Kenny and Coroner Fishero were Curtis E. Rardin, director of highway safety for the State Highway department, and Joe Hendrlcks, safety director of the truck line which owned the trailer.
Libka said he owned the trailer.
Gilliland was born near Yeddo Feb. 20, 1938, the son of Okel and Ethel Hargis Gilliland. He married Patsy Paxton of Kingman in Aug. of 1955.
Surviving with the wife and father are a one-year-old daughter, Ethel Jean, a brother, Darrell Lee, senior at Kingman, the paternal grandmother, Mrs. Ina Gilliland, and the maternal grandparents, Arnold and Dora Hargis of Somerset, Ky.
Coroner Fishero said death was due to "extreme crushing of the chest in the upper left area." - jz