Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 May 1951 — Page 1
12, 1951 Bushmiller
years ago came back today.
———Mrs—Mahern—was—notl. CL WW EEE LX NY
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FORECAST: Fair and mild today.
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Partly cloudy tomorrow with showers by afternoon
The Indianapolis Times
High today 74. Low tonight 52.
or night.
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62d YEAR--NUMBER 62
The
an “Hy JIM SMITH, - “The Good Lord took care of me.”
“That's why I'm’ still ra¢ing.” The man who miraculously escaped a fiery death two
He came back to shatter all Speedway records. He's “The Duke.” In the 1949 race, Duke Nalon crashed into the north wall. His Novi had broken a rear axle on the 24th lap throwing the car into a slide and spin. As the car slid along the wall, sparks from the metal ignited leaking fuel, Instantly the car was enveloped in flames. “This could be it,” the Duke told himself. As the car bound along the outside wall backwards, he was fully conscious, preparing to get out as soon as the car stopped.
” 2 a HE KEPT telling himself: “I mustn't breathe those flames. I've got to get out of this thing.” The car stopped. He jumped from the seat, over the wall and rolled on the grass to smother the flames consuming his uniform. From there it was the hospital and months of pain as he recovered from burns that covered half his face, his hands, his chest, his legs. After he left Methodist Hospital there were weeks upon weeks of squeezing a rubber ball to develop stiffened hand muscles to get them into shape to grip again the steering wheel of a race car. That crash in 1949 was the toughest break the Duke ever received. But the year before he was running in front when he had to make an unscheduled pit stop. Valuable time was lost. He finished third.
The Man Who Came Back— Duke Rises
classic.
FAULTY DEATH TRAP—If ever a blazing crackup should have killed a man, this plunging pyre should have killed Nalon. It didn't.
LAST YEAR—the same story. Bad luck dogged the friend, qualified 18th, and won the feature 50-mile event. A month later he won a 100-mile race at Roby. His friend's
Novi-team and they didn’t even get into the Memorial Day, They saw rookie driver, Walt Faulkner take their
track records away.
But. yesterday belonged to the Duke, the man who)
he shattered all existing track records. record of 137.049 and a four-lap record of 136.498. He put the Novi’'s back on top. The Duke got his first “seat” in 1933 at Roby Raceway, Nashville. |Chicago. He took a strange car at the insistence of a couldn't see. A car spun. He hit it.
i———————————— me ed nt eA. So Atte rem
Courage Starts at Home—
A Mother Meets a Challenge...
Timmy Is Gone, “Yet He's Nedr By EMMA RIVERS MILNER Five-year-old Eddie Mahern jumps on his bike and
goes flying down the street to visit St. Catherines Catholic Church every day. I heard about this and other unusual happening while
calling on the Mahern in their home, 1505 E. Kelly St.
Eddie and Kevin met me at the curb with hearty greetings. Mrs. Mahern, in freshly starched pinafore, opened the door L. J. a fourth grade pupil had not come home from school. Baby Mike wheeled gaily about the room in his walker. Kevin, who is 3. edged up to me at soon as I was seated. He pointed -to the miniature bust of a man which was serving Mike as a teething ring. “He's biting the Pope’ observed Kevin, watching me to see if I knew a joke when I met one Elsye Mahern, the mother, did not seize upon the remark to sermonize. But I didn’t expect her to. 1 was aware of her understanding of children and of how to abet and aid what the Catholic Sisters do for their religious education. : For I have been reading colums from Elsye Mahern's pen published in the Indiana Catholic and Record under the title “Family Growing Pains.”
» 5 ”
WHAT 1 saw there greatly intrigued me. So I asked to see her among her children just before Mother's Day. She explained to me that she never is conscious of preaching to children. “You live religion,” was her comment. She believes it is good for ehildren to handle religious objects. The fact that they are gometimes a bit unceremonious about it, (as was 10-months-old Mike, does not disturb her. “We give the baby a rosary when we say the family rosary each night,” she added. “He chews on it while we say: the prayers on ours.’ so ” "
THEN THE mother recalled time the boys were playing at _ paying Mass. Eddie, the “priest,” urged in his sermon: “Never hit your: brother unless he hits you first.’
herns. His death made a spiritual change in his parents, his mother says. 2 » ” TWO YEARS ago, 6-year-old Timmy was stricken with a
Out-Door. Items | Sell Well Now |
shocked by this eye-for-an-eye philosophy. Church services had so impressed the little boys that | they were dramatizing them. 8he let it go at that. Today, the whole family will attend mass together, L. J. and bis parents will receive Holy Communion, fasting beforehand. Eddie especially will enjoy the service. He loves the big, beautiful church. » = = A¥TER they return home, | L. J. and his father will pre- | pare breakfast. They always do | on Sunday, making a sort of Mother's Day observance every week. Timmy will be present In spirit in church with his brothers and his parents tomorrow. Timmy seemed very near, this week, as I listened to his family | talking about him. He was blue-eyed. full of Irish humor like the rest of the Ma- |
These are the seasons for out-door fun, healthful and productive activities. All | kinds of equipment can be | sold to bargain-eager Times Want Ad readers. What do you have to sell? Garden tools or furniture . .. bicycle or wagon . . . golf clubs or boat . . . lawn games or barbecue tools . . . fishing or hunting “stuff”? Dust it all’ off now and sell it for cash through Times LOW-COST
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_The_Indianapolis Times
Charles's Restaurant, 144 E. Ohio. — Tor Blears unch. ce 1010.
i E
RI ley 5551 |
cerebral hemorrhage and died in an hour and a half. When his father and mother wera called upon to give him up so unexpectedly, they had to find the courage to do so. And they did. They always had been good, practicing Catholics. ' But after | Timmy's going, their faith took on new life and strength.
ily,” expressed it.
LITTLE TIMMY, as described
| by his family, was all boy, full | of energy and play. But he | also was a thinker.
Mrs. Mahern showed me one
| of the last outline drawings | that he colored. He was very | fond of doing that.
This one she had framed and hung on her bedroom wall. It depicts an angel touched
| up with crayon to look the way |
a small boy thought it should look. Under the picture Timmy wrote: “My guardian. angel me to be happy." “And so do we. we were willing to give him up.”
wants
“YT WAS the mother speaking, | without tears but a great light Famous; {n her face.+
—y
That's why
Times Photo by John Spicklemire.
Mrs. Mahern and family . . . find strength and courage before the Heavenly Mother's altar.
Milk Price Won't Dip This Summer
By TED KNAP
is the way Eisye Mahern realize it, but they're being Wilson and Robert Ruark . ‘nipped from behind on an-
lother price front.
The latest bite comes from |milk. Prices on Bossie’'s best are
|staying high this spring, and probably will stay high through,
the summer.
In the past four years, {housewives have become accus-
{tomed to seeing milk prices dip a {penny in April or May, and hold
[there through part-of the summer. [Not so in 1951.
| Although prices have risen 3 {cents per quart since last summer, milk industry experts see practically no hope of rolling
them back--even a penny. | "Reason for the sad news fo {housewives is good news to farmers.
| Continued on Page §—Col. 3
5
_ SUNDAY, MAY 13, 1851
| Five nundred thousand peo-fetFesus—is-a-part-of-our—fam-. ple in Marion County | hardly
local
Their prices for Class 1 milk [-Whid: 1% what ‘goes intq, your
confidence paid off. ” = »
came back. In his sleek, powerful Novi Purelube Special, ' entered big time racing with such stalwarts as Wilbur | He set a single lap Shaw, Wild Bill Cummings, Shorty Cantlon and Babe Stapp. That winter he raced midgets too. | bad wreck in 1937 at the Tennessee State Fair Grounds, “500. On the 19th lap the track became so dusty he pow
In Traffic To Track
Police kept fingers crossed hoping they could*
today, avoid a repition of yesterday’s traffic jam which delayed opening of the Speediway trials for an hour and a half. Another road-jamming crowd of 40.000 to 50.000 is expected to head toward the W. 16th St. “amphitheater” when the second
round of qualifying runs begins at 11:30 a. m Track officials and police said they could avoid yesterday's late morning traffic jam by opening i all main gates into the Speedway grounds. At police request, racing | was halted on the oval yesterday ito allow opening of two ‘cross|over” gates at the track to smooth ithe flow of traffic. State and city police and sheriff's deputies-—about 60 in all will be on duty in the track |area again today. A radio control |center has been established in | the Speedway pagoda and a state | police plane will cruise overhead [to watch for traffic snarls. | At the height of yesterday's | jam, cars were lined for 4's miles east of the track. Police designated several streets as oneway to shake loose the jams.
BULLETIN
| Six persons were injured, | two critically, early today in | a crash involving four cars at | 21st and Illinois St.
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice Indianapolis, Indiana.
On the Inside’ Of The Times
Pelilieal writer Noble Reed believes that next fall's mayoralty race may well be decided on international 1isSUBS. ys stsavsssisnrrvineee |The first chapter of a thrilling story —Kon-Tiki—the moving saga of six men on a raft . . Your favorite col.umnists, Ed _ Sovola, Karl $10 million worth ot new rental units expected to be ready for occupancy here by summer's end. . . North Side realtors report sales topping $200,000 for week ending
May T. ceveeernsns shes sade Other Features: Amusements ........ 28, 29 Automobiles ...oviviiiien 30 CUD scevesesesse 32,33, 35 Crossword .ceceecesssace 29 Editorials .....000 tease 22 FOrUm ..cvsevsssesssns 22 Gardening ...... verses 40 Harold H. Hartley secusrs 43 Movies ......i....7s 28, 29 Radio and Television .... 24 Schools cessnsiversisve 18 Pr. Sermo cecveissnscssres 28 Society sesssssscnneesias 38 Ed Savola ..casesieinss 21 ~—Sports viviseieeseaei 13°17 TEENS sesvesssaseerseers- 41
Issued Dally. |
hand and leg.
ind finished 11th.
5 y r’
He had his first!
Another hit him.
TODAY—AIl smiles and the record. DUKE NALON, (Novi Purelube Special)
Lap Time MPH Lap Time | 1:05.67 137.049 3 1:06.04 2 1:05.80 136.778 4 1:06.23 Total 4:23.74 (New single lap record, 137.049)
(New 4-lap record, 136.498)
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MASTER OF HORSEPOWER—Sane Marcanse funes up New.
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PRICE TEN CENTS |
rom the Flames To Shatter Records
. When the dust settled there were five cars in the pileup, Duke spent two. weeks in'the hospital with an injured eft
Nalon's first action in the “500” came in 1935 as riding mechanic for Johnny Sawyer. race. In 1937 he entered the "500" as a driver of the Frank Brisko car, but failed to qualify.
CAME THE war and Duke traded racing togs for a uniform. He was technical representative for the North Africa and China-Burma-India theatres with the Air Serve ice Command at Wright Field. When racing at the “500” resumed in 1946, he was on the Suderia-Milan racing team from Italy with Count Varsi and Count Villoresi. He was knownsas “Discount” Nalen, In fourth place at 113 miles a universal joint sized up and he was out of the race. In 1947 he drove the Don Lee Mercedes and was forced out with a broken piston on the 360th mile, Then came '48 and the unscheduled pit stop. Then 49 and the crags that almost ended his racing career.
THAT "CRASH didn't scare Nalon away. “Not that I am fearless,” he said. “I don’t think race : drivers are fearless. We have the same fears, the same hy IN 1934 he was passed by the AAA contest board and | man reactions as the fans in the stands. We're confident at the wheel of a race car, that's all. And years of experience at thigh speeds have given us that confidence.” This year the Duke still has his ambition—to win ‘the " He isn’t cocky. He's confident. He knows he has » erful car and a good crew. He is grateful . .. “That the Good Lord made it possible.” _
Nalon's 136.498
w Fight Jam
MPH 136.281 135.890 136.498
“McGrath, who qualified the
apo WL
The car didn't make the
In 1938 he started last
” » »
Novi Hits 137.049 on’ First Lap
on aE self, Page 13.
. By BILL EGGERT Duke Nalon looked the other way yesterday from the north wall where he was burned seriously in 1949 and traveled faster than any other 500-Mile Race driver has done in Speedway qualifications. The 38-year-old veteran of seven Memorial Day classics, set new records for one lap and four laps. His opening lap in the under slung No. 18 Novi Purelube Special was clocked at 137.049 miles an hour, breaking last year’s mark of 136.013 set by Walt Faulkner. Nalon’'s average speed for the four laps was 136.498, also shattering Faulkner's 1950 record of 134.343. The speeds returned to the Novi team the records formerly held by Ralph Hepburn. The opening day of qualificas tions also saw three other records broken before an estimated crowd of 50,000. Lee Wallard in the little No. 99 Belanger Special surprised all railbirds with a 135.039 average for the 10 miles. His speed, which also bettered Faulkner's 1950 mark. was the fastest any four cylinder rear-drive car here on the bricks and asphalt. Duane Carter, after sliding into the infield on the south turn earlier in the day, came back with his Mobile Special and turned in a 133.749 MPH average to" better Mauri Rose's record for four-eyl-inder front-drive. Carter alse now owns the single lap record for his clase of cars with a 138. 929. ad Nalon's record-breaking time won for him the pole position for Race Day, May 30. He also is a cinch to pull down $2750 in qualie °° fication prize money. ." Alongside Nalon in the front row will be Wallard and Jack
Special at 134.303. Other qualifiers in the order vol their speeds were Carter, 133.949; Rose, Pennzoil Special, 133423; Trov Ruttman, Agajanian erweight Special, 132.314; Nazaruk, Jim Robbins aa 132.183; Johnnie Parsons, Friction-Proofing Special, ’ Tony Bettenhausen, Mobiloil Spe cial, 131.950; ‘and Cecil. Gey, ha John Zink Special, 131.802. © . The 10 qualifiers turned first-day average speed of miles an hour, bettering most two miles an
Continued on Page 13 >
Station WFBM-TV is. uled to brosdeast qualif runs and other activities at Speedway from 3 to 4 p. “Any.pgaesther permitting.
or uh