PHELPS, Ruth Crumley
Source: Crawfordsville Journal Review 30-Mar-1961 p. 1
Mellott - Funeral services for Mrs. Ruth Phelps will be conducted at 2 p.m. (EST) Tuesday at the Crumley Funeral Home at Hillsboro. Rev. Jack Eitlebuss, pastor of the Mellott Congregational Christian Church, will be in charge. Burial will be in the Wingate Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home Monday afternoon and evening. Mrs. Phelps was found choked to death Tuesday morning in her home at Klamath Falls, Ore. Her husband, Arthur Arnold Phelps, has confessed her slaying, according to Oregon State Police. Mrs. Phelps was a former resident of this community.
Source: Kokomo (Ind) Tribune - Thursday 30 March 1961 p 3
Klamath Falls, Ore - Arthur A. Phelps, 43, Klamath Falls electrician
accused of strangling his wife, was arraigned on a first degree murder
charge Wednesday. A preliminary hearing was scheduled Saturday. State
police s id Phelps admitted choking his wife, Morene Ruth Phelps, 40,
because he thought she was unfaithful. Police said he called a relative
to come over to take care of his two sons, 9 and 10 years old, then
drove off in the family car. He was arrested several hours later,
driving on the outskirts of town. He is being held without bond. A
sister-in-law, Mrs. Floyd Phelps, said she found the victim dead in her
bed Tuesday after Phelps called her. She said Phelps left a note saying
he had choked his wife and planned to kill himself. After his arrest
Phelps told police he had tried to asphyxiate himself by lying beside
his car with a tarpaulin thrown over the exhaust pipe. Friends said
Phelps had appeared upset recently. The body of Mrs. Phelps was to be
returned to Mellott, Ind., where she was born and where she attended
school. She moved from Indiana to California in 1942 and was married in
1943. Survivors include her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Forest Crumley of
Mellott, and two sisters, Mrs. Robert Harlan of Lafayette and Mrs.
Edwards Sparks of Indianapolis.
Source: 1960s Area Obituaries – thanks to Covington Public Library (especially Brenda) for sharing these wonderful obits with us – hand dated 3-31-1961
The body of Mrs. Ruth Crumley Phelps, 40 former Mellott resident was expected to arrive at the Crumley Funeral Home in Hillsboro sometime Saturday from Klamath Falls, Oregon where she was found dead in bed at her home there on Tuesday Oregon authorities were held the husband, Arthur Phelps, 42 for question on suspicion that Mrs. Phelps had been choked to death as she slept. Mrs. Phelps, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Forest Crumley of Mellott was born and attended schools in Mellott graduated from the high school there in 1937. She moved to California in 1943 during the war when she secured work in a defense plant there. She was married three years later in 1946 to Arthur Phelps, an electrician. Two sons, Douglas, 10 and Curtis 9 born of this marriage were at home when the body was discovered. Surviving are the parents; three sisters, Mrs. Robert Harlan of Lafayette; Mrs. Howard Sparks of Indianapolis and Mrs. Robert Smith of Dubuque, Iowa; three brothers, Marvin of Orlando, Florida, Bille of Riverside, California and Jack of Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. – kbz