Surnames: Kennedy, Eckes, Koch, Hildensperger, Nelson, Allard, Harrison, Gaetzman, Woodward

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 07/29/1954

Kennedy, Homer D. (13 Apr. 1892 - 23 July 1954)

Homer D. Kennedy of Abbotsford, Wisconsin, age 62, died at the Marshfield, Wisconsin Hospital shortly before 10 o’clock Friday night of injuries suffered in a head-on auto collision at 3:30 Friday afternoon. The Kennedy car and another car driven by Andrew Eckes of Unity, Route 1, age 56, crashed near the blacktop manufacturing plant of Highway 13, about one-half mile south of Colby, Wis.

Eckes, salesman for Krepsky & Neck, suffered a bruised chest and lacerations on his face for which he is being treated at the Marshfield, Wisconsin Hospital. His condition is not critical. Both drivers were alone at the time of the accident.

At the time of the crash, Kennedy was driving south behind a gravel truck which turned right ahead of him to enter a gravel pit. Kennedy veered to his left to pass the gravel truck when he sighted a car driven by Eckes and traveling northward. Both drivers, trying to avoid a crash, swerved to the ditch, on the east side of the highway, where a head-on collision occurred.

Dr. J. W. Koch of Colby treated both men at the scene of the accident and took Eckes to the hospital in his car. An ambulance took Kennedy to the hospital. Dr. Koch described Kennedy’s injuries as multiple bruises and ruptured liver and ascribed the cause of death to the liver injury.

John W. Hildensperger, Marathon county coroner, and Chief Henry Gaetzman of the Marathon county traffic patrol investigated the accident Saturday morning. William Nelson, Clark county traffic officer, and Harvey Woodward, Marathon county traffic officer, came to the scene shortly after the accident. The fatality is the 16th traffic fatality in Marathon county this year.

The coroner held that Kennedy "was negligent in his own death," and that he "operated his vehicle without keeping proper lookout" for oncoming traffic.

Eckes was driving his own car and was on his way to Colby when the collision occurred. The impact whirled his car around completely but it remained on the highway. Kennedy’s car plunged into the ditch on the east side of the road.

Kennedy was born on April 13, 1892, in La Farge and was married in Ontario to Ruth Elizabeth Allard. They lived in Abbotsford for 33 years where Kennedy was in the grocery business for 30 years. He was a member of the Abbotsford Presbyterian church and the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce.

Surviving are his wife; a daughter, June, at home; one son, Richard, of Wausau, a brother, O. B. Kennedy of La Farge; and four grand children.

Funeral services were held Monday afternoon with Rev. Richard Harrison, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, officiating.