Sidener - John Warner - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

With the auditorium of the First Baptist church  crowded to the doors and with a throng of at least two hundred persons  remaining on the outside of the church, funeral services were held for  Samuel M. Vancleave and John Warner Sidener, the two Ben-Hur linemen  killed in a fall with a broken tension pole. The service for Vancleave was begun at one forty-five and was followed those for Sidener at  three-fifteen. Both services were conducted by Rev. B.E. Antrobus,  pastor of the First Baptist church. The sermons delivered over the  caskets bearing the bodies of the two well known young men were of a  nature appealing strongly to the host of their friends present at the  services. The Baptist Church quartet composed of Charles Badgley, Ray  Dorsey, F.M. Surface and W.H. Slagle, sang during both services.

William Vancleave of Marion and Lambert Vancleave of St. Louis, brothers  of Samuel, together with Bert Vancleave, an uncle of the deceased, Ray  Lucas, Charles O'Connor and Benjamin Oswalt, served as pallbearers for  the younger of the two men whose tragic deaths cast sorrow throughout  the city. Sidener's body was placed in the grave by the members of the  Baptist quartet and Harry Robertson and Charles Sanders. - kbz