Obit: Opelt, Lance (? - 1959)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Opelt, Quicker, Johnson, Holmes

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 10, 1959

Opelt, Lance (? - 7 September 1959)

Funeral services will be held this (Thursday) afternoon at 2 o’clock from the Gilbertson Funeral Home in Granton for Lance, five-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Opelt of Hibbing, Minn., and formerly of Granton and Neillsville.

The services will be conducted by the Rev. Virgil Holmes, pastor of the Granton and Neillsville Methodist Churches, and burial will be made in Windfall Cemetery.

Lance was one of two five-year-old boys who lost their lives in Minnesota traffic accidents during the Labor Day weekend.  He was with his parents, who were fishing below the Swan River Bridge near Pengelly, 15 miles west of Hibbing on highway 65, Monday.

He left his parents and wandered to the highway where he was struck by a car driven by Lyle W. Johnson, 32 of Hopkins, Minn.  Johnson was returning with members of his family from a holiday weekend in northern Minn.

The Opelt family moved to Hibbing two years ago when Mr. Opelt received a promotion in the J. C. Penney Company, by which he was employed.  He was with the company in Neillsville for several years, and was a graduate of Neillsville High School.  Mrs. Opelt is the former Fay Quicker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roland Quicker of Granton.  Mr. Opelt is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Opelt, also of Granton.

The Opelts have two other children; Lynn, 10 and Larry, 7.