SMITH, Darrell Glen
Source: Obituary
from a collection of Fauniel Hershbarger, a
life-long Fountain County Indiana resident
ATTICA – A grieving
father, after searching for two weeks, found the body of his six-year old son
Saturday afternoon. Darrell Glen Smith drowned May 5, along with his sister,
Laura Lee, age 2, when their father’s truck rolled backward into the Wabash
River. Vernie Smith had taken his four children with him to the Monroe St.
landing to remove a boat from the river. While attaching the boat trailer to
the truck, the truck slipped backward into the river. The elder Smith got two
of the children out of the water, but Darrell and Laura were swept away before
he could get to them. When rescuers pulled the truck out their bodies were
gone. Divers searched and river and men dragged the area for days. Fishermen
found Laura Lee’s body about four miles north of Covington on May 8 – about 10
miles downstream. Vernie Smith never gave up searching for his son’s body. He
had been on the river nearly every available minute. Saturday afternoon at 2:15
he found the body, floating along the bank about a mile south of where the
truck had gone in the water – across from the Williamsport landing. Vernie and
his wife, Alice, have two other sons, Eddie Allen, 7, and Gerry Lynn, 5. They
live at Rt. 2, Attica. – jlr