Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 160, Decatur, Adams County, 9 July 1959 — Page 8

PAGE EIGHT

15-Year-Old Girl Overcomes Handicap By HOXTENSE MYERS United Press International INDIANAPOLIS (UPD—Back of a very dull'non-profit corporation report filed away in the Statehouse is a Hoosier version ,of the Helen Keller story. Della Wier, blind and deaf, is 15 years old, and has overcome the third handicap of muteness after six years of training at a special school. The flesh-and-blood person for whom the Della Wier Fund. Inc. was formed is at her South Bend home this summer after completing her sixth year in the Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Mass. Mrs. Albert H. Martin, South Bend, president of the non-profit corporation, reports that Della has made '’remarkable" progress since going to the school. She has learned quite a vocabulary. She speaks quite well and can hear with her thumb on your lip. She even won her athletic letter at the school. High I Q Mrs. Martin said Della has become very adept in ceramics, weaving and knitting, at swimming and at writing and reading braille. The black-haired girl “has a terrifically high 1.Q.”, Mrs. Martin said, and has progressed beyond the school’s expectations Mrs. Martin went to Boston and returned the blind and deaf girl to South Bend for the summer vfcit with her family, Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Wier. The corporation president credited a 1955 law authored by Jesse L. Dickinson, South Bend, state senator and former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, wi t h making Della’s schooling possible. The law provides that any child who is both deaf and blind may be educated at state expense in any institution in the United States after gaining approval of both the state deaf and blind school superintendents. Della and one other girl sent to the Alabama school were the only ones qualifying for this type of training last year, in Indiana. Coat of Della's training is $2,250 annually. Blind From Glaucoma Mrs. Martin said DeUa’s “corporation” is most concerned now about arranging transportation for her to and from the Massachusetts school. In addition to Mrs. Martin, other officers of the Della Wier Fund, Inc., as listed on on Statehouse records, are Peter Smith, Sr., treasurer; Mrs. John Gordey, secretary, and Frank McIntyre. vice president. Della's blindness resulted from glaucoma and both eyes now have been removed and she wears artificial eyes. For a time, she attended the Indiana School for the Deaf, but because of her blindness it was felt training such as provided at the Perkins’ school was needed. However, Assistant Supt Alfred lamb recalled that Delia’s father brings her back to the Indiana School for the Deaf periodically for a visit with students there who still remember her. Truck Accident Is Reported In County The sheriffs department reported a truck. accident, 2t4 miles south of Berne on U.S. 27 on the Wabash river bridge when Ralph Peter Bollinger, 21, of Geneva, wrecked the ton and a half truck when his rear dual wheels sheared j off, causing the truck to slam into , the bridge banister. Traffic on the, highway was tied up Monday from j 2:45 to about 5 p.m., because the ] vehicle could not be moved immediately. Two tow trucks tried to straighten out the heavily loaded truck, but failed. Police finally called another wrecker who also assisted in the moving. Bollinger told police that his ■ truck struck a rough bump in the road, shearing off the rear wheels and sending the truck out of control into the bridge. Bollinger was not injured. Deputy sheriff Robert Meyer and state trooper Dan Kwasneski were the investigating officers.

DECATUR — Last Time Tonight — I “Stranger In My Arms” DRIVE-IN . Ju "S/. 1 ! y,iOn .’ 4 “Golden Age of Comedy” THEATRE Funniest Film Ever Made! TTOT&VF 0 0 So Grsot We're Showing It 4 Days—Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon. They’re together and nothing can tear’em apart! JOHN WAYNE -DEAN MARTIN RICKY NEISONKRIQmiM TECHNICOLOR* «rom WARNCR OROS. m mmo> moouCHSi OncM W Produced t» HOWARD hawks Sat Midnite Bonus Hit—“ Silent Enemy” Frogmen in Action! ■■ __ o 0 Coming Next Weele—Patterson-Johansson Fight Pictures!

Four-Year-Old Boy Home From Hospital Jan Alan Bluhm, 4. injured last Saturday when he fell from the back of a truck, was expected to return home today from the St. Joseph’s hospital in Fort Wayne. f The son of Mr. and Mrs. Gene 1 R Bluhm, route one, Monroe, re- ’ ceived severe back bruises and ' Some muscles in his back were torn when he fel] from the back of ; a truck driven by his father on the ’ farm of his grandfather, Roger Bluhm. There were no witnesses to the accident, and when the' lad, was found, he was taken to the j Adams county memorial hospital.' ! where X-rays indicated he needed further treatment. Taken to Fort Wayne', he underwent more tests Monday when he was showing improvement, and when the tests showed that there were no more serious injuries. Testifies To Bets Made Al Syndicate TERRE HAUTE. Ind. (UPD— A Florida construction executive was scheduled to resume testimony today about -bets he placed with an alleged gambling syndicate while eight more "bettors or bookies” joined a backlog of seven waiting their turn to testify. Julius Gaines. Miami, was excused from the witness stand late Wednesday when the defense objected to his examination by District Attorney Dona A. Tabbert. Tabbert had asked, the building contractor how much he bet with the alleged syndicate. Gaines was the first of more than 150 witnesses identified by the government as "bettors or bookies” with 1 the alleged syndicate. The prosecution had planned to question eight of them Wednesday and eight more today, but Gaines was still waiting to finish his testimony when court resumed this morning. Gaines identified two of the eight defendants as gamblers who accepted his telephoned football bets in September, October and November of 1957. He said all his bets were made on the University of Miami and his telephone calls were taken either by “Flippy or Leo,” whom he later identified as Phillip Share, Las Vegas, Nev., and Leo Shaffer, Chicago. During legal arguments at the close of the day after the jury was excused, defense attorneys insisted they tried to speed up the trial but were unable to because the government refused to give them a list of witnesses. “We don’t know who a witness is until he walks into the courtroom,” said Daniel W. Davies, Newport, Ky., one of the defense lawyers. All Polio Chapters In lowa Alerted DES MOINES (UPD—Chapters of the National Foundation in lowa have been alerted to prepare for a possible statewide spread of the polio epidemic now sweeping the Des Moines area. Bill Nieman, Des Moines, state chairman of the March of Dimes, urged the chapters today to obtain more money to meet the anticipated heavy increase in expenditures necessary to aid polio ; victims. I As the polio epidemic in Des I Moines showed little signs of | abating. lowa Health CommissionI er Dr. Edmund Zimmerer urged ' teen-agers to get Salk vaccine shots. Four more iron lungs arrived here to aid in the battle against the disease, bringing to 15 the number of respirators the National Foundation has supplied the city since June 1. There were 70 confirmed polio j cases in the Des Moines area WedI nesday and 12 more suspected cases in the first major outbreak of the disease in the nation this summer. Three persons have died here from the disease.

Confesses Slaying Five-Year-Old Girl I LAS VEGAS. Nev. (UPD-The confessed slayer of a 5-year-old girl was quoted today as saying . he confused the child with his ' wife, whom he had sent from home after telling her "I know I’m going to kill somebody.” Robert K. Ervin, 21, arrested Wednesday as he stepped off a train from Los Angeles, is accused of the rape slaying of DoI lores Stafford, a neighbor child i whose nude, slashed body was found in Ervin’s attic Monday. “Yes, I killed her,” Ervin told

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THE DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT,. DECATUR, INDIANA

police. "The little girl came over ’ to my house. I was lying on the couch. She thought I was asleep but I wasn’t. “I thought she was my wife.” Police said Ervin's story was largely incoherent. HLs wife, Kathy, 18, told officers her husband had a split personality and that "he said that ever sinpe he was a little boy a person inside him urged him to do things.” She said she had gone home to her parents in Kingman, Ariz., last Saturday after Ervin tried to choke her and then told her: "You better get away, Kathy. I know I'm going to kill somebody.” Mrs. Ervin, who is expecting a child, turned over to police a let-

ter she received from, "her husband from Los Angeles, where he fled after the part: , r "Kathy, Kathy, I lovb you. I’ll never know why I did this. I know I’ll be put away for a long time, and I’d like to see you before then. ■ £ Police said Ervin denied raping the child, a neighbor who fre- * quently visited his wife and who apparently went to the Ervin . home without knowing Mrs. Ervin was away. Doctors said there i was no questton, however, that she had been sexually molested. Dolores was one of four children of St. Elmo Stafford, an executive of the Las Vegas Review Journal, and Mrs. Stafford. The family came here from Fort

Smith, Ark., six months ago. Dist. Atty.'George Foley said a first degree murder charge would be filed against Ervin today or Friday. Resentment against the 5-fOot, 3-lnch youth was high in the community. Detective Lt. B. J. Handlon said he doubted that any mob violence would be attempted, but said an extra jailer had been put on duty and “well stop any trouble if it comes, right quick. Queen Elizabeth At Seaway's Terminal PORT ARTHUR, Ont. (UPD— Queen Elizabeth, who formally opened the St. Lawrence Seaway with President Eisenhower at Mon-

treal June 26, sailed into its westernmost Canadian terminal today. She was told in advance briefings and in speeches prepared for delivery by the local mayors at a lunch in Fort William the people of the lakehead were counting on the waterway to open up the prairies to world commerce. Studebaker Reports Broduction Increase SOUTH BEND, Ind. (UPD—The Studebaker-Packard Corp, said Wednesday it produced 89,068 passenger cars in the first six months of 1959, more than four times the 20,060 units produced in the first! half of 1958.

\ THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1959

President HarolS E. Churchill said public acceptance of a new smaller and lower priced* car (Lark) was responsible for the production increase. “Floor Show” •very Sat Nite MOOSE “1311 CLUB” ’I—I—