Surnames: Rueth, Noeldner, Scheel, Stevens, Voss, Stumpner, Schultz

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 30 May 1957

Rueth, Marjorie (17 July 1942 - 22 May 1957)

Fourteen-year-old Marjorie Rueth, Loyal High School freshman, was fatally injured and seven other teenagers from the same community were injured, one critically, when the cars in which they were riding crashed head-on a short distance south of Hatfield on a town road about 7 o’clock last week Wednesday night.

All of the young people, students at Loyal High School, had been attending a school-end picnic at Hatfield. The group left Loyal Wednesday afternoon and embarked on their own picnic plans. It was not a school-sponsored project, high school authorities said, for which reason there was no faculty supervision of the activity.

All of the injured were removed in two ambulances to the Krohn Clinic Hospital at Black River Falls, about 14 miles from the scene of the accident. The Rueth girl died there shortly after midnight. She was a back seat passenger in a car being driven by Donald Noeldner, age 16, which carried six of the picnic party. Driver of the other car was Rodell Scheel, whose only passenger was Kathleen Stevens.

Hospital attendants described Noeldner’s condition as "critical." He is suffering from head and internal injuries and a fractured leg.

Other passengers in the Noeldner car were Larry Rueth, brother of the dead girl, who has a fractured clavicle, Wayne Voss, fractured clavicle and lacerations of the scalp; Virginia Stumpner, back injuries and lacerations, and LaVone Schultz, dislocated right hip and cuts.

Young Scheel suffered a fractured jaw and cuts and was reported transferred to a Madison hospital Thursday. Kathleen Stevens, who was riding with him, received cuts and bruises and appeared the least injured of the eight.

Only meager details of the accident were available as Jackson county authorities continued their investigations. There was no explanation of why the two cars were traveling in opposite directions when they collided head-on. An unverified report said the vehicles were on a dead-end road and that the lead car had reversed its course.

The Stevens girl, authorities said, walked 1 ½ miles to a farm home to summon help. As she and the farm owner were en route to the accident scene the car stalled on the sandy roadway. Walking about another mile, the Stevens girl halted a passing motorist, who drove her to Black River Falls, where authorities were notified.

An hour or more elapsed before help reached the other accident victims, who either had been tossed from the cars or crawled from the completely wrecked vehicles. The ambulances in which they were removed to the hospital were from Black River Falls and Hixton.

Parents of the youths are Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Rueth, route 2, Loyal; Mr. and Mrs. Herman Noeldner, route 2, Loyal; Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stevens, route 1, Loyal; Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Voss, route 2, Loyal; Mr. and Mrs. Gary Scheel, route 1, Loyal; Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Stumpner, route 1, Loyal, and Mr. and Mrs. Howard Schultz, route 1, Loyal.

Marjorie was born in Marshfield July 17, 1942, and had lived her entire life at Loyal. She was a graduate of St. Anthony’s School and had entered Loyal High School as a freshman this year.

Survivors besides her parents are six brothers, Larry, Ronald, John, Richard, Jerry and Paul, and two sisters, Kathleen and Vicky, all at home.