Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 56, Number 304, Decatur, Adams County, 27 December 1958 — Page 1

Vol. LVI. No. 304,

iMOt '*' ■ iWr lt'''.'S '' ' $ /%s>■ ’ &E*£tv'lfli£flßl a ■RMM -,.. mMRBI FIRES ADD TO HOLIDAY DEATH TOLL—Two fires, thousands of miles apart, set the pace in flaming holiday deaths with 63 fatalities counted across the nation. At Richmdndr Va.‘, (left) flames consume the mansion of Horace A. Gray, Jr., taking his life and that of his wife and three children. At the right, a fireman carries the body of one of nine members of an Auburn, Wash., family from the smoking rubble of their home. Mrs. Lavonne Hollenbeck fend eight of her eleven children perished in the flames. '

Holiday Fires Continue To Claim Lives At Least 68 Dead Across Nation In Fires On Holiday Utfted Preu International Sympathetic response was quick and generous today for victims of holiday fires which have killed more than three score persons across the nation. A United Press International survey showed that at least 68 persons were killed in fires, Pennsylvania leading the nation with 10 dead. Nine members of one family died in a Washington blaze, while Virginia, with six dead, and California, Michigan and North Carolina, each with four fatalities were the states hardest hit by fires since the holiday period began at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Four children burned to death early Saturday in a fire that consumed a home three miles outside of Granite Falls, N.C. Firemen said the victims, ranging from two to 14 years old, were the children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wilson. A fifth child jumped from a second story window and escaped the blaze. Fund Drive for Victims Within hours after an Auburn. Wash., fire claimed the lives of nine members of the Ole Hollenbach family Friday, Auburn radio station KASY and the local Red Cross chapter went on the air with a 2%-hour Hollenback fund marathon. Contributions poured in from throughout the area. Including an initial SSOO grant from the Red Cross, the still-growing fund totaled $2,100 when the station went off the air. Only three members of the Hollenbach family survived the predawn baize that saw an heroic rescue of Wanda Hollenbach, 7, by elderly neighbor Willard Clyde, 65. In Richmond, Va., wealthy businessman Horace A. Gray Jr., 49, his .wife and three of their four children perished in another early morning hciocaust that swept unabated thrci. gh their $150,000 mansion. Victims besides Gray were his wife, Catherine, 47, their daughter, Susan, 19, and two sons, Thomas, 17, and Foster 1?. J Elderly Women Saved Hie surviving son Horace A. Gray 111, 22, > a Coast Guardsman, rushed to the scene from the Richmond jail where he had been arranging bail for two friends and heard the fire report on the police radio. Eight elderly nursing home residents in Liberty, Ind., were saved Friday by volunteer firemen who traced the sounds of coughing through dense smoke and-flames in the two-story structure. - The home’s director, Mrs. Anna Scott, 66, had meanwhile returned to the building without firemen’s knowledge in an attempt to save some of the five women, and two men trapped in the Maze. Firemen found Mrs. Scott alive, but lying on the kitchen floor with hand and face burns. No other injuries were reported. Tree Wiring Blamed Other holiday fire losses: —Three children, from 2 months to 6 years old, died early Friday " Continued on page five INDIANA WEATHER Partly cloudy tonight and Sunday, little change in temperature. Low tonight 29 to 35. High Sunday 46 to 55. Outlook for Monday: Considerable cloudiness and some cooling indicated, but no Important temperature changes.

DECATUR DAIIA DEMOCRAT

Woman, Ex-Convicts Indicted In Murder Charged In Murder Os Daughter-In-Law VENTURA, Calif. (UPD—Elizabeth Ann Duncan, 54, and two exconvicts Friday night were indicted for the murder of the Santa Barbara woman’s attractive daughter-in-law, Olga Duncan. The Ventura County grand jury handed down the indictments aft- . er only 15 minutes deliberations > following eight hours of testimony. . Luis Moya, 22, and Augustine Baldonado, 25, were named in the indictments along with Mrs. Duni can for having taken part in the > “for hire’’ slaying of the 30-year- . old pregnant nurse last Nov. 17. Moya, a laborer, confessed lur- , ing the victim from her Santa Barbara apartment by telling her i that her husband, attorney Frank L Duncan, 29, was drunk in a car . parked outside. , He told the grnd jury that he . and Baldonado beat and strangled the woman and then left her body in a shallow grave, possibly bur- . led alive. Admit to Plot Dist. Atty. Roy Gustafson said Moya and Baldonado, who con- , fessed 6 days earlier, told the grand jury they had been hired [ for $6,000 by Elizabeth Duncan to I murder her daughter-in-law. Mrs. Duncan also was indicted along with Ralph Winterstein. 25, for obtaining a fraudulent annulj ment of her son's marriage to the dead woman. Bail on the annulment charge I was set at $50,000. Gustafson re- , quested that no bail be allowed ; on the murder counts. Duncan, who testified at the , hearing for 1 hour and 40 minutes Continued on pa«e five I Ike Working Over Upcoming Messages Budget And State Os Union Messages GETTYSBURG, Pa. (UPD — President Eisenhower may be r able to get out and around his frozen farmland today if the " weather warms up to 40 degrees' as forecast. i The Chief Executive, with a file ■ crammed with preliminary drafts ■ of his State of the Union and upcoming budget messages, drove up to his farm fr&n Washington ■ Friday, prepared to stay througlf ■ New Year’s. • Weather permitting, he was ex- ‘ pected to get out at least part of the day with his 10-year-old grand1 son, David. The other three Eisenhower grandchildren, daugh- ’ ters of Maj. and Mrs. John S. Eif senhower, will join the President ’ and Mrs. Eisenhower here next , week. The temperature at the farm went to nearly zero the night bet fore the President’s arrival and [ his acreage was crusty hard from i repeated days of sub freezing , weather. , The President, his wife, and grandson reached the farm at 3:50 p.m. Friday and a short time latI er, Eisenhower was working alone , on his heated, glassed-in porch, scanning and revising a preliminary draft of the message which will outline his 1959 legislative pros gram for the Democratic-controlled r Congress. The President also brought along a preliminary draft of the message to accompany his balanced 77 billion dollar budget for fiscal 1960. The two messages will dominate much of the President’s working time while he enjoys the Continued on page five NOON EDITION

President Os Cuba Shakes Up Army Command Orders More Troops Into Las Villas To Halt Rebel Drive HAVANA (UPD—President Fulgencio Batista shook up the central Cuban army command today and ordered 2,000 reinforcements to the "waistband” province of Las Villas to halt a rebel drive to split Cuba in two. The rebel radio has said the fall of Santa Clara, capital of Las Villas was* “a matter of hours.” It also claimed that the port of Caibrien on the north coast of Las Villas had been captured and that the south coast naval base at Cienfuegos was “besieged.” The government called the rebel claim to Santa Clara “premature,” but did not directly contradict the other rebel claims, which indicated an all-out insurgent effort to split the 750-mile island in two with Fidel Castro’s rebels occupying the eastern end and Batista’s government holding the west. Meets Top Officials Batista met with his top army, navy and police officials at the presidential palace and later issued a communique announcing a shake-up in the army high command. The communique said Col. Jose Casillas Lumpuy, a veteran of the anti-Castro fighting in rebel-dom-inated Oriente Province, had been named to replace Brig. Gen. Alberto Rio Chaviano as zone commander in Las Villas Province. The Cuban army also warned the Cuban people it no longer could afofrd to restrain its forces in areas, populated by peaceful citizens taking no part in the rebellion. Civilians Net Safe A military order of the day published Friday night said the troops and planes would attack rebels without regard to the safety of the civilian population. It was believed the rebel drive in Las ViAs was aimed at blocking reinforcement ot Cuban army garrisons east of the province and Continued' to page 5 I Boy Is Injured In Unusual Accident Terry Black, 12, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Black, of Pleasant Mills, was admitted to the hospital for surgery Christmas morning after an unusual accident. Terry received an archery set for Christmas, and had just set up his target and was running back to shoot, when he fell. The arrows spilled from his quiver, and he fell on top of them, two of the arrows running into his leg. In true “Wild West’’ fashion, one was pulled from the wound, but the other broke off, and an operation was necessary to remove the metal point. The boy was dismissed from the hospital Friday morning. Mother Os Decatur Ladies Dies Friday Mrs. Harold S. Nash, /Sr., 56, of Bluffton, died at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Wells county hospital after a long illness. Surviving are the husband; five children, Mrs. Martha Elzey, at home, Harold, Jr. and Wilmer N., both of Bluffton, Mrs. Paul Hodle and Mrs. Brice Hower, both of Decatur and 14 grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Thoma funeral home in Bluffton, the Rev. Keith Davis officiating. Burial will be in Fairview cemetery.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, December 27’ 1958.

Highway Toll Mounts Throughout Nation; 363 Dead Early Today ■ ■ . • i’

—J— Spokesman For Pilots Denies Any Settlement Says' Predictions Os Settlement Os Strike Premature CHICAGO (UPD — Spokesmen for 1,500 American Airlines pilots today indicated predictions of an early end to the strike that has grounded the nation’s largest fleet of airliners may have been premature. C. N. Sayen, president of the Air Lines Pilots Association, said that although he spoke by telephone with Leverett Edwards, chairman of the National Mediation Board, about a truce proposal, he had “no idea” where Edwards had got the impression a settlement was in the offing. Edwards announced Friday that the results of a conversation between the three-man ' mediation board in Washington and the ALPA in Chicago made him “hopeful the strike may be resolved within the next few days.” “The only thing discussed was the proposal forwarded earlier by Mr. Edwards,’’ Sayen said. “There were some points on that proposal that needed clarificaNeither Edwards nor Sayen said which of the 12 points in the package proposal were discussed. American Airlines, which has been strikebound since Dec. 21, accepted Edwards’ proposal shortly after it was proffered but the union has held out for further clarification of the terms. The strike against American, coupled with twin strikes by flight engineers and mechanics at Eastern Airlines, had idled, one third of the nation’s air carriers at the height of the Christmas holiday travel rushAlthough machinists have accepted a new contract, a spokesman said they will not cross picket lines still maintained by the striking engineers, now in the Continued on P»K® five Rescue Nine From Nursing Home Fire Operator Os Home Critically. Injured LIBERTY, Ind. (UPD—Volunteer firemen credited luck and good hearing today for the rescue of nine elderly residents of a nursing home destroyed by fire. Mrs. Anna Scott, 66, owner and operator of the home, was injured critically trying to lea d her patients to safety from the blaze Friday. She was found by Firemen unconscious on the kitchen floor next to the flames. Five of the nine residents were hospitalized, one in poor condition and the others in fair and good condition. All suffered from smoke inhalation, exposure and shock. “It was a terrific smoke and a wonder they ever came out of it," Fire Chief John Hartley said. Firemen found the six women and three men patients by tracing the sounds of their coughing in the dense smoke, he said. “We were very fortunate all the patients were on the first floor,” Hartley said. “They would have suffocated In another few minutes.” Mrs. Scott wag overcome by smoke when she returned to the home after another patient, the fire chief said. Firemen didn’t know she was in the two-story building until Hartley stumbled across her in the flaming kitchen after all the patients had been carried to safety. She had been unconscious about 15 minutes, he said. Mrs. Scott suffered severe burns on her left arm and side. She had telephoned the alarm to firemen. Hartely said the fire apparently started in/« defective flue in the attic and had been burning for contltraea oe page five

a* . , . SIOO,OOO Damage Suit Venued Here Seeks Damages For Accident Injuries * A complaint case seeking SIOO,- ’ 000 for temporary and permanent 'injuries suffered in an auto-motor--1 cycle crash in Fort Wayne during 11956, has been venued from the I Allen superior court to the Adams |,circuit court. J The case is Rex W. Sanders, by J Joseph D. Sanders, his next J friend, vs Betty M. Swanders. I The complaint alleges that on | t the 14th day of November, 1956, at . about 3:30 p. m., the plaintiff was driving a Harley-Davidson motor- • /cycle east on State Boulevard, apl proaching a point where it inter- ■ sects with another public highway , known as Kentucky avenue. At • the same time, the defendant was ■ driving an auto north on Kentucky • avenue, approaching the interseci tion. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant carelessly and neg1 ligently drove the auto into the ■ path of the motorcycle operated 1 by the plaintiff and that the de- ! fendant failed to stop before ent1 ering the intersection. • The plaintiff continued by alleging that the defendant failed 1 to yield the right of way to the r 'motorcycle. i The complaint also stated that t by reason of the carelessness and "j negligence of the defendant, the I plaintiff was injured, bruised, hurt, rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled temporarily and per- . manently, sustained fractures of ’ th efourth and fifth lumber vertebrae,, residual traumatic spondy- » litis of the lower two-thirds of "his • thoractic spine and the entire lumbar spine, bruises to his right hip, right side and right thigh, t and was required to wear a back - brace and was confined to a hosl pitaL Also in the complaint, the > plaintiff alleges that due to the accident he was unable to work on his job as a clerk for six ■ weeks and lost salary amounting to $lO2. ! The plaintiff stated that by r reason of the facts set forth, the ' plaintiff was damaged in the sum of SIOO,OOO. In answering, the defendant admitted she was in the accident and that the plaintiff did receive injuries, the exact extent of which were unknown to her. She also denied that she knew if the defendant was unable to work. The defendant is represented by Barrett, Barrett and McNagny. The plaintiff’s counsel is Dunten, . Arnold and Backman. All of the I attorneys are from Fort Wayne. I ■ Widespread Hunt On ■ For Downed Balloon • Small World Lands k On Venezuelan Soil [ CARACAS, Venezuela (UPD—An , al-out land and air search was launched today for the balloon ( “Small World,” believed down in > Venezuela’s “green-hell” jungle at the end of its historic Transatlan- , tic crossing. , A week radio message received k late Friday said the balloon and its four crew members had land- , ed Isafely at a point about 22 miles > southeast of the tiny coastal port a of Pedemales in the federal dis- . trict of Delta Amacuro. The area, called the "greenz hell.” is the least civilized section » of Venezuela. It has only recently 3 |been opened by U.S. oil company] t exploration teams. It is populated r by “lost” Indian tribes, of which 1 little is known. i A hastily-organized Venezuelan - air force search uncovered no . sign of the balloon or the four » English crew members before a severe storm and darkness turned ; the planes back. I Helicopters owned by toe U.S. . oil companies were to’ join the r search today while national guard » patrols set out overland to the r point broadcast in the radio mesContinue* on p*c« five

End Os Costly Paper Strike Appears Near New York Strikers Scheduled For Vote Over New Contract NEW YORK (UPD—The end of the costly, 18-day New York City newspaper strike appeared to be in sight today. A proposed new contract needed only the approval of the rank-and-file membership of the deliverers’ union on Sunday. Representatives of the publishers and the Newspaper Mail and Deliverers Union, spurred on by federal mediators, Friday night agreed on terms for a new twoyear contract after a prolonged 'series of negotiations. Union attorney Asher Schwartz said details of the contract would be spelled out to the'membership at 11 a.m. (e.s.t.) today at Manhattan Center and would be voted upon by secret ballot on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Barney G Cameron, chairman of the Publishers’ Association of New York, told UPI: r “We (the nine newspapers) will begin publishing as soon as possible after the men return to work.” Even if the union members approve the contract, however, New Yorkers were destined to spend their third Sunday in a row without Sunday papers. The strike, which forced the suspension of the New York Times, Herald - Tribune, News, Mirror, Journal-American, WorldTelegram and Sun, Post, the Long Island Star-Journal and the Long Island Press, cost an estimated 34 miljicn dollars in lost revenue and wages. In addition to the striking truck drivers, the shutdown threw 15,000 other craft union employes, such .as reporters, printers and pressmen, out of work without pay, caused a frustrating news blackout which nettled the reading public of the nation’s largest metropolis, and seriously hurt the Christmas holiday business of department stores, Broadway shows, real estate firms and other conin fact, the entire economy of the city. Mrs. Harry Daniels Dies This Morning Funeral Services Monday Afternoon Mrs. Myrtle A. Daniels, 09, of Pleasant Mills, widow of Harry W. Daniels, died at 2:45 o’clock this morning at the Adams county memorial hospital. She had Jeen ill for the past 14 months. She was born ai Connersville May 3, 1089, a daughter of Edwin and Margaret Yager-France, and was married in Pleasant Mills to Harry W. Daniels Oct. 24, 1908. She had lived in Pleasant Mills most of her lisp, except from 1933 to 1943, when the family resided at Convoy, O. Her husband died Jan. 22, 1948. Mrs. Daniels was a member of the Pleasant Mills Baptist church. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Gerhard (Helen) Schultz of Decatur, and Mts. Paul (Margaret) Lobsiger of Monroe; one son, Bryce Daniels of Decatur; six ' grandchildren: two great-grand-children; one brother, Aaron Mason of New Albany, and two halfsisters, Mrs. Hattie Stowe of Elk--1 hart, and Mrs. Olive Nelson of ' Muncie. Two half-brothers preceded her in death. ' Funeral services will be cbnducted at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon at the Zwick funeral home, ; the Rev. Oakley Masten official i ing. Burial will be in the Decatur ' cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 7 o’clock this evening until time of the services.

* - Report Tibet Revolt Against Red China Claim Tiny Nation Wages Armed Revolt TOKYO (UPD—Reports filtering out of remote Tibet indicated today the tiny, ancient nation is waging an armed revolt against Chinese Communist rule. They said 65,000 persons had been killed in the months-long fighting. The reports said the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the mountain-top nation, may seek asylum in India. The reports came from New Delhi, Caluctta, Brutan, Katmandu, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and smaller hill cities near the Tibetan border. Commercial travelers and refugees said the largest flareup came in the August-October period when the proud Khamba tribe in the eastern province of Kham revolted. They said about 50,000 Chinese Reds were killed. Tibetan death estimates ranged from 5,000 to 15,000. The Communists tacitly admitted they were having trouble in Tibet when they announced that they were delaying imposition of their heavily - criticized people’s commune system in that country. There apparently has not been any large scale fighting in the past two months, but numerous small-scale actibns have occurred. Nationalist Chinese sources on Formosa claimed that the Tibet revolt also has spread to four provinces in northwest China. In some areas, rebels have seized key position' - and forced Communists intc <.he mountains, they said. The nationalist Central News Agency reported from Hong Kong today that the Communist Chinese government moved 10,000 troops ConUnued on page five Warmer Weather In Majority Os Nation Unseasonal Warmth Moves To Northeast United Press International Warmer and wetter weather prevailed over most of the nation early Saturday, and the continuing pattern of unseasonal warmth began to penetrate the Northeast. Except for parts of New England and southward along the mountains into the Virginias where temperatures ranged from zero to around 20, there were few traces of typical wintry weather. There was widespread rain in the Northwest, ''extending into northern California, where San Francisco-reported almost an inch farther inland, becoming snow only at the higheif elevations. A similar rainy pattern clung to the opposite corner of the country, with heaviest amounts recorded in Florida and lesser deposits reported in Georgia and Alabama. Very light rains occurred in a broad area ranging from Illinois to Louisiana. While general warming thawed out the eastern third of the country, the only cooling was reported in the central and southern plains, and there it was slight. Nighttime temperatures in the 20s and 30s occurred sporadically across the nation's northern rim, ! while temperatures in the 50s were common over the gulf states and in the southwest. SIOO,OOO Fire Loss At Portland Friday PORTLAND, Ind. (UPD — Fire ■ caused an estimated SIOO,OOO damages to the Frank Implement Co. at the north edge of this city on U. S. 27 Friday, night. The blaze was set off by a spark 1 from a grinding wheel which ignited a bucket of gasoline used i for cleaning purposes. Most of the loss was to new and used farm equipment and to the building.

Six Cento

Rale Os Road Deaths Exceeds All-Time Mark Holiday Motorists Enact Tragic Farce On Nation's Roads United Press International Holiday motorists were enacting a tragic farce today that caused officials to resign themselves to another “black Christmas” on the nation’s highways. Spokesmen for the National Safety Council saw a “faint glimmer” of hope in the slight' slowdown in the mounting death toll, but pointed out the rate was still higher than the all-time holiday record set on “black Christmas” of 1956. At that time, United Press International counted 712 deaths over the four-day week end. At 12 hours past the half-way mark in the 102-hour holiday period this year, at 8:00 a.m. e.s.t Saturday, a UPI count showed 363 deaths. in traffic, 70 in fires 3 in plane crashes, and 53 in miscellaneous accidents for a total of 489. California Leads List California led the nation with 38 traffic deaths. Texas was second with 33 dead, New and Pennsylvania 19 each, Illinois, 18, Michigan and North Carolina 17- each, Massachusetts 14, and 11 each in Florida, Georgia, New NJsxjeo and Missiouri. Safety experts had been grimly optimistic before the week end started at 6 p.m. Christmas Eve that travelers, gt worst, would keep the death toll down to 620 deaths, or 140 more than the normal amount for a non-holiday period of the same duration. Mostly, they had banked on the lesson to be drawn from 1956, phis the fact that police were waging one of tile strictest crackdowns on record. In Chicago alone, almost 70 drunk drivers were hauled off the streets by mid-Friday; Weather Tempts Driven But the weather, which should have been h boon to the careful motorist, served only as a temptation to drivers anxious to make the most of clear roads and > fair skies. High-speed accidents took many lives. , Alarmed officials quickly revised their estimates upward and said there no longer was any justification for optimism — “it just looks horrible.” Late Friday, however, it appeared the hour-by-hour rate had dropped from 15 te 20 ahead of the 1956 tally to 10 to 12 deaths ahead. , "We appeal to evey driver not to let this faint glimmer fade,” a council spokesman said. He noted, however, that the worst .part of the week end — the last-minute rush for home—was yet to come. Traffic Death Toll. Slows Down In State 10 Fatalities On Highways To Date United Press International Indiana’s costly Christinas holiday traffic death toll appeared at deast temporarily slowed today. At least 10 fatalities were reported since Wednesday night, but none since mid-day Friday when an Indianapolis woman m&t death near Brazil. The latest victim apparently was Mrs. Clarence Clift, 55, killed when her husband’s car crashed along U. S. 40 and struck a tree. ' Several unopened Christmas packages were found in the car. At least five other miscellan--1 eous deaths were reported, including , a fire fatality, two hunting : mishaps and a drowning. • Safety officials had predicted 15 i traffic deaths through midnight ; Sunday—a figure now expected to i be exceeded in the final 36 hours of the holiday period. ,*