HARMON CHELSEA VANZANT

Aug 29, 1957

Harmony Chelsea VanZant, 34, a former resident of Point township but more recently an automotive garage owner and mechanic in Houston, Tex., met death in Galveston bay when his cabin fishing boat exploded and caught fire Monday (26 Aug 1957) evening.

Announcement of his death was received locally by his mother, Mrs. Florence VanZant Point township.  The tragedy victim's father, Robert, was fatally stricken by a heart attack while driving a farm tractor several years ago.

A brother in law of the drowned man, Robert Clifford, Houston, formerly of New Haven, Ill. who was also in the fishing party, is hospitalized with severe burns.

Coast guardsman made the rescue of the three survivors.

VanZant's body was recovered yesterday.

It gave evidence that VanZant had been badly burned prior to his drowning.

It will be brought to Weisinger Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon and funeral and burial services will be conducted locally.  The time of arrival of the body in Mt. Vernon had not been determined this afternoon. (Burial was in Bellefontaine Cemetery.)

The drowned man, a former serviceman, was the father of two teenage sons, Forrest, 15, and Richard 13.

Surviving in addition to the mother, and two sons, are the wife, the former Lucille Clifford, of New Haven, Ill; three brothers,. Robert Harold VanZant, Black township, Isaac VanZant, Point township, and John Orla VanZant, State of Washington, and four sisters, Mrs. Ernest Hust, Mrs. Donald Gaither and Mrs. Charles East, all of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Ray Rowe, Lafayette, Ind.

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Originally submitted by Betty Sellers