WIMSETT, Kenneth L. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

A Kingman carpenter, Kenneth L. Wimsett, 52, was stricken Friday afternoon while at work on the gymnasium expansion project at Wabash College and died in an ambulance en route to Culver Hospital. The man apparently sustained a heart attack, according to Dr. Samuel C. Millis, Montgomery County coroner, who was called to investigate along with city police. An ambulance attendant said he was able to detect a faint pulse when the victim was placed in an ambulance, but the man was dead on arrival at the hospital. Reports that the man had died in a fall were erroneous, police said. Wimsett was employed by Baker Forms Co. of Indianapolis and had been woking with a foreman, Cecil Carpenter, 45, of West Lafayette, installing a form in an excavation about 10 feet deep at the base of the structure. Carpenter said he left for a few minutes before 4 o’clock to get pay checks for the employes, and when he returned he found the stricken man lying on his back unconscious. An ambulance was summoned to the scene and Wimsett was placed on a stretcher and removed from the excavation by fellow workers. “It seems hard to believe a man like that could have a heart attack,” commented Carpenter. “He appeared to be one of the healthiest workers we have,” he said. Carpenter said Wimsett had not complained of feeling ill when he worked with him a few minutes before the seizure occurred. The victim had been employed by Baker Forms Co. about five months, Carpenter said. Mr. Wimsett was born Oct. 25, 1913, in Vermillion County, son of Benjamin H. and Lydia Rebecca Anderson Wimsett. He was married July 3, 1946, at Kansas City, Kans., to Ruth Volz. Mr. and Mrs. Wimsett started housekeeping in El Cajon, Calif. They had resided at Rt. 1, Dana and Scottland, Ill., before moving to the Kingman area. Mr. Wimsett was a veteran of World War II and was a member of Carpenters Union No. 3241 of Covington. Survivors include the widow; his mother, who resides at Rockville; a son, Morton Dee Wimsett of Hawthorne, Calif.; a daughter, Mrs. Wanda K. Etelman of Torrance. Calif.; two brothers, Dayton H. of Tangier and Calvin G. of Danville, Ill.; two sisters, Mrs. Margaret Thompson of El Cajon, Calif., and Miss Selma M. Wimsett of Kankakee, Ill.; and seven grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his father, two brothers and two sisters. Funeral services were held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Friends Chapel near Scottland, Ill. The Rev. Ed Armstrong officiated and burial was in the Friends Chapel Cemetery.   --– jlr