Submitted by: Mary Jo Koran

SBT 9/3/1960

Edward F. Voorde

VOORER RITES SET TUESDAY

Plan High Mass at St. Patrick’s Church

Funeral services for Mayor Edward F. Voorde, killed in a Friday afternoon automobile crash on US 31, five miles south of Plymouth, will be held at 11am Tuesday in St Patrick’s Catholic Church.

The requiem high mass will be sung by Rev George Meagher, CSC, pastor of St Patrick’s, the home parish of the 49 year old mayor his wife and their seven children.  Burial will be in Cedar Grove Cemetery at the University of Notre Dame.

The Nemeth Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, but the body will be taken to the Hickey Funeral Home, 3702 Lincoln Way W.  Friends may call there from 2 to 5pm and from 7 to 9pm Sunday and Monday and until the hour of the funeral on Tuesday.

The rosary will be recited in the funeral home at 7:30pm Monday.  Members of the staffs of the Nemeth, Hickey and St Joseph funeral homes are helping with details.

Police Chief J. Charles Dutrieux and Fire Chief Alex M. Andrzejewski said all off duty officers will attend the funeral.  Special details will be on hand at the funeral home Sunday and Monday.

Chief Andrzejewski said the funeral will be one of the largest in the history of the community.  Chief Dutrieux said special efforts will be made to ease the passage of the funeral procession from the church to the final resting place of the mayor’s body.

Dr. Marshall Stine of Bremen, the Marshall County coroner, said Voorde died instantly when his car left the highway and rolled on its side pinning Voorde beneath it.  Dr. Stine said the mayor suffered a skull fracture and severe chest injuries.  The doctor said the primary cause of death was a brain injury.

Witnesses told Marshall County Sheriff Jerry Greenlee the mayor was alone in his north-bound car when he attempted to pass another car driven by Bruce Wagner, 21, 54540 Northern Ave.

The Voorde car swung too far to the west side of the two-lane highway and the left wheels dropped onto the gravel on the berm.  A truck driver, Thomas Farris, 40,of Benton Harbor, told state police the Voorde car then swung back to the east, back again to the west and then across to the east.

Farris said Voorde appeared to be trying to steer the car to the left or west when it flipped over, landing atop the mayor.  Farris said he stopped his truck and ran back to the car.  Other passing motorists helped lift the car off the mayor and a passing Roman Catholic priest stopped to administer the last rites.

The time of the accident was fixed at about 1:50pm by officers, who were summoned by passers-by.

Police said the car traveled more than 400 feet north after the left wheels dropped onto the berm.  A St Christopher medal was found on the road near the crash scene.

The car drive by the mayor was a 1960 Lark convertible.  The top was down at the time of the accident.

State Trooper James Young and witnesses indicated the car was traveling at from 65 to 70 miles an hour when it left the road.  Voorde was alone.

At the time of his death, Mayor Voorde was returning from Indianapolis, where he attended a hearing Thursday by the Public Service Commission of Indiana on South Bend’s proposed water works bond program and proposed increase in the water rate.

City Engineer Raymond S. Andrysiak, who had ridden to Indianapolis with the mayor Wednesday, said other official who attended the hearing returned Thursday night.  The mayor stayed over, explaining he wanted to stop in at the State Highway Department and check on the status of the Sample St Bridge, Andrysiak said.  He also said he wanted to get a temporary beer permit for the Volkskring groups’ annual Labor Day party, Andrysiak added.  Andrysiak returned with attorneys George Sands and William Hosinski.

Two of the mayor’s daughters, Frances 20, and Charlotte, 18, were visiting in the East at the time.  They returned to South Bend early today.  The mayor’s son, Edward Jr., was driving with his wife to visit a relative when he heard the report on the radio as he was going through Edwardsburg.

One of Mayor Voorde’s long time friends, Notre Dame Head Football Coach, Joseph Kuharich, heard about the death during a football practice.  He and the players knelt on the practice field and offered a prayer.

Close friend of Mayor Voorde will serve as pallbearers.  They are St Joseph Count Clerk Casimir J. Pajakowski, football Coach Bernard F. Witucki, Police Chief J. Charles Dutrieux, Fire Chief Alex M. Andrzejewski, City Electrical Inspector Frank Biebuyck and Anthony I. Sabo, clerk of the Board of Public Works and Safety.

Honorary pallbearers will be Bert Liss, Joseph W. Nyikos, Frank X. Kopinski, George Sands, Stanley Hull, Louis C. Chapleau, Emery L. Hirschler, Frank J. Bruggner, Irving J. Smith, Louis P. Bourdon, Daniel W. Richardson, Fred Wagner, Richard E. Burkhart, William P. Downes, Alex Weisel and John W. Montgomery.