News: Clark Co.Traffic Deaths (10 Mar 1969)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Oestreich, Richmond, Gurney, Mickelson, Kanennberg, Booher, Olson, Vandeberg, Cassity, Beeler, Reindel

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 3/13/1969

Two Traffic Deaths (10 March 1969)

Funeral services will be held in Loyal this (Thursday) afternoon and in Neillsville Friday afternoon, for two men killed in a truck crash at the junction of highways 10 and 12 about noon Monday.

The dead, first fatally injured on Clark County highways this year, were: Robert Oestreich, 33, of Rt. 3 Neillsville and a former Loyal resident; and Donald E. Richmond, 30, of Neillsville, proprietor of the Pool Hall in Neillsville. A third man riding in a pickup truck driven by Richmond, Jerome Gurney, 22, also of Neillsville, is in Memorial Hospital here with head, face and back injuries; but his condition is not considered serious.

Services for Oestreich will be held at 2 p.m. today from the Loyal Methodist Church, with the Rev. Conrad Mickelson in charge. Military rites will be held, with Kenneth Kanennberg, commander of Post No. 175, American Legion, in charge. Burial will be made in the Lutheran Cemetery at Loyal. The Myre Funeral Home at Loyal is in charge of arrangements.

The pickup truck was struck in the middle of the left side with considerable force. The pickup box and housing built over it were torn from the chassis. The steel frame of the pickup was bent on both sides almost to a half-moon shape.

The Ludeman truck, a cab-over job driven by Robert Olson, was damaged severely, but was driven away under its own power. The Richmond truck was a shambles. Olson escaped injury.

Oestreich died in the ambulance enroute to Memorial Hospital, 16 miles from the accident scene. Richmond succumbed to his injuries shortly after his arrival there.

Richmond was born May 25, 1928 in Greenwood. He attended school in Christie and was a 1956 graduate of Neillsville High School. From 1956 to 1959 he worked in Marshfield.

On May 21, 1958, he was married to the former Joyce Vandeberg in Winona, Minn. They farmed until 1963, when they went to Missouri and farmed for a year. After returning to Wisconsin, he worked in Kenosha, returning to Neillsville in 1966, when they purchased the Pool Hall.

Services for Richmond will be held at 2 p.m. Friday from the United Methodist Church at Christie. The Rev. Carl Booher of Greenwood will be in charge. Burial will be made in the Greenwood Cemetery. The Georgas Funeral Home of Neillsville is in charge of these arrangements.

All three men were occupants of a pickup truck driven by Richmond when the fatal crash occurred. They were enroute to an auction at Alma Center, making the trip by way of highways 10 and 12. Besides being in business in Neillsville, Mr. Richmond raised feeder cattle.

Apparently they missed the turnoff at the transformers at the 10-12 interchange, and went on to the west to a point where the highways meet to make a turn around an island at the interchange. According to Clark County traffic officers, the Richmond truck waited for a car approaching on the curve from the south to pass, so then started to make the turn. Apparently a Ludeman’s South Alma Dairy bulk milk truck, following the car, was not seen.

He is survived by his wife; two daughters, Barbara, 10, and Laurie, 3; his mother, Mrs. Edna Cassity Akin of Mountain Grove, Mo.; and a brother, Jesse Richmond, Jr., of Granton.

Richmond was a member of the United Methodist Church in Christie, the Neillsville Chamber of Commerce, the Clark County Tavern league, the Wisconsin Tavern League, and a district manager of Wisconsin Malt Beverage association.

A naval veteran who served during the Korean War, Oestreich was born August 21, 1935, in Marathon. He received his education in the Loyal schools, and completed four years of naval service in 1956.

On November 9, 1957, he was married in Chili to the former Marlene Beeler. The couple lived in Loyal until five years ago, when they moved onto a farm near Christie.

Surviving are his wife; three daughters, Debbie, Rhonda and Sandy, and a son, Marty, all at home; a sister, Mrs. Donald Reindel of Scottsdale, Ariz.; two brothers, Donald and Richard, both of Loyal; and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Everett Oestreich, also of Loyal.