Obit: Purgett, Norman R. #2 (1943 - 1963)

Contact stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Purgett, Boor, Semandel, Churkey

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 08/01/1963

Purgett, Norman R. #2 (26 DEC 1943 - 25 JUL 1963)

Norman Ray Purgett, 19, of Route 2, Owen (Clark Co., Wis.), was instantly killed when his compact convertible car literally wrapped itself around a tree at Marshfield at about 3:50 a.m. Thursday.

Dr. Francis Kruse Jr., Wood County Coroner, reveled after an autopsy was performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital that Purgett’s death was caused by a skull fracture and that the youth also suffered severe internal injuries and a broken left leg.

Purgett, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Purgett, route 2, Owen, had left his home at about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday to visit a girlfriend, Gloria Boor of Stetsonville, a student at Wis. State College in Stevens Point.

Wayne Semandel, Route 2, Stratford, an attendant at the Skelly Service Station, Central and Arnold Streets, said the youth drove into the station at 3:15 a.m. Thursday and asked permission to sleep in his car at the station, and request Semandel to waken him in half an hour.

Semandel said he complied and at about 3:45 Purgett, who was alone in his car, drove off at high speed, accompanied by a screeching of tires, heading west on Arnold Street.

The stree, which is also State Highway 13, curves slightly to the left at the 900 block, but Purgett’s car continued straight ahead, jumped the right curb and smashed head on into a twin elm tree.

Police and firemen were called to the scene and the Fire Department rescue squad found it necessary to cut apart sections of the smashed car to extricate the body.

The entire front of the car, an engine in the rear type, was demolished. Tehre were no skid marks on the pavement.

Purgett was a lifelong resident of the Owen area, where he was born Dec. 26, 1943. For the past two years he had been employed by the Northern Freeport Silo Co. at Withee.

He is survived by his parents, a sister, Mrs. Nadine Churkey, of Withee and two brothers, Maynard and Michael, at home.