A Tragic Accident and the Amazing Kindness of a Community

By Terry (Warren) Orr

This story took place 62 years ago - thanks to family members going through boxes of family belongings and researching the Internet we have been able to piece together our story.

Over sixty years ago my family was involved in a horrible vehicle accident killing two and injuring the other four passengers. This accident took place near a small rural town of Kincaid, Kansas. The nearest hospital was ‘New Allen County Hospital’ (which open earlier that year) in Iola, Kansas.

My Father recently turned 27, Mom was 26, I was 6, my sister 5, brother 3, and a baby brother was just one day shy of being two months old. We were returning home to Wichita from Kansas City after visiting our grandmother and to make final preparations for moving back there, as Dad has accepted a new position. 

Around 1:20pm, that afternoon on November 5, 1952 a 1940 Chevy pick up made a left-hand turn in front of us. Mom and the baby were killed instantly, my sister and father suffered serious injuries, while my brother and I suffered non-life threatening injuries.

On the following day after this accident, the Iola Register newspaper wrote two articles - first article was on page one, “Two Die in Crash at Kincaid” that described what had happen; and the second article found on page four titled "Preventable Tragedies" - which is provided below.

The Iola Register

Thursday, November 6, 1952

Page 4

Preventable Tragedies

The report in today's paper of the Kincaid accident, which cost two lives, indicated that the whole cause was poor eyesight on the part of one of the drivers.

If that is the case - how much longer is Kansas going to persist in a drivers' license law, which permits indefinite, automatic renewal without even the most cursory yearly physical examination?

It would cost quite a bit of money. But how much is a life worth - if it happens to be a member of your own family?

Curiously enough, there always seems to be considerable sympathy for any elderly man who involves himself in a wreck through his infirmities, even when that wreck mains or kills others.

"After all," they say, "the old man has to get around. He has to make a living, doesn't he?"

There are two answers to that.

The first is an unequivocal no. He doesn't have to get around and he doesn't have to make a living if his physical handicaps are so great that he can't do so without endangering the lives of others.  He can stay home and the state will take care of him. Or he can do something that doesn't require driving a car or truck.

The second is that an examination might turn a dangerous driver into a safe one by the simple expedient of requiring him to buy a pair of eyeglasses.

It is amazing the number of people who slide from good vision into bad so slowly that they don't realize the seriousness of the impairment that has taken place. This is especially true of near-sighed people who find their eyes good enough for everything they do with their hands but who have become so accustomed to a fuzzy distance vision that they jus think nothing about it.

Until they pull across the road in front of an approaching automobile they didn't see!

I suggest the legislature give this matter some mighty serious attention. A given number of strictly preventable tragedies will continue each month until it does.

While the author was not identified, this article is spot on and is as true today as it was 62 years ago.

On December 24, 1952, the Iola Register on page 1, published a Christmas card they received from our Grandmother, which read in part:

"We shall never forget the unusual kindness shown us following the death of our daughter-in-law and grandson, Mrs. W.C. Orr and infant, in an automobile accident near Kincaid," writes Mrs. Hodges, "nor the splendid treatment given her husband and their three children at the Allen County Hospital. May God Bless your wonderful town."

On January 1, 1953, The Register published an additional article related to our journey, “The Holloways Entertain at a Steak Dinner” from page one, that read:

A New Years Eve party and steak dinner was given last night at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Milt Holloway in Gas City for the tenants of their apartment house at 421 South Walnut in Iola.  Following the dinner David Holloway entertained the group with several vocal selections with Ruth Holloway at the piano.

Those present were Mrs. Pat Smith and her daughter Jeannie, Mrs. Eric Spicer, Miss Ida Perkins, Miss Ruby McCloud, Herschel Perry, Mrs. Mary Parkins and her sons Dickie and Allen all of Iola. Mr. and Mrs. Duane Canady and Sherry of Lawrence, Miss Margaret Tenny, and the three Orr children, Dwight, Lynn and Warren of LaCygne, who have been guest in the Holloway home for the past several days, and Mr. and Mrs. Holloway and their children Milton Jr., Elta Mae, Ruth, David and Steven.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Milton Holloway and family taking us in and making that evening very special.

Thank you Doctor Eugene Myers for taking such wonderful care of us.

Thank you each and every one of those exceptional individuals, families and communities for all that you did, offered to do and your love and support for our family.

With any event - there are always multiple perspectives, different memories, and certainly different facts and information that is processed uniquely to each person. This is my account of these events based upon: newspaper articles; passed along to me by my Father, Grandmothers, Aunt, and inputs from several immediate and extended family members.

We remain grateful, thankful, blessed and strengthen by the support, understanding, love and guidance given by so many.  To those generous people of Kansas – who provided so much during our recovery – words alone – simply can not expresses our thanks. For our Father – bless his soul, who gave us his best to keep us together and provide a solid foundation to grow upon. To Granny Greenwell who never shied away from anyone or anything to support and teaching us everything and more importantly doing the right thing and respecting others. To June who entered our lives at a critical juncture was truly a gift from above.

Live your journey...

I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peep.

I could see that you were crying, You found it hard to sleep.

I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear,

"It's me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here."

I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea,

You were thinking of the many times, your hands reached down to me.

I was with you at the shops today, Your arms were getting sore.

I longed to take your parcels, I wish I could do more.

I was with you at my grave today, You tend it with such care.

I want to re-assure you, that I'm not lying there.

I walked with you towards the house, as you fumbled for your key.

I gently put my paw on you, I smiled and said " it's me."

You looked so very tired, and sank into a chair.

I tried so hard to let you know, that I was standing there.

It's possible for me, to be so near you everyday.

To say to you with certainty, "I never went away."

You sat there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew...

In the stillness of that evening, I was very close to you.

The day is over... I smile and watch you yawning

and say "good-night, God bless, I'll see you in the morning."

And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide,

I'll rush across to greet you and we'll stand, side by side.

I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see.

Be patient, live your journey out...then come home to be with me.

Author ~ unknown

Understanding U.S. Newspapers and Their Readers

By Terry Orr

(Sharing another email)

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could find the time and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a poor job of it.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Chicago Tribune is read by people that are in prison and used to run the state & would like to do so again, as would their constituents who are currently free on bail.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
11. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are gay, handicapped, minority, feminist, atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided, of course, that they are not Republicans.
12. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
13. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.

Chris Kyle: Amen

This is apparently from a wife of one of the Navy Seals in attendance... it makes interesting, disturbing, but hardly surprising reading.

Chris Kyle became the armed services number #1 sniper of all time.

Not something he was happy about, other than the fact that in so doing, he saved a lot of American lives.

 

Three years ago, his wife Taya asked him to leave the SEAL teams because he had a huge bounty on his head by Al Qaeda. He did and wrote the book "The American Sniper." 100% of the proceeds from the book went to two of the SEAL families who had lost their sons in Iraq.

 

That was the kind of guy Chris was. He formed a company in Dallas to train military, police and I think firemen, how to protect themselves in difficult situations. He also formed a foundation to work with military people suffering from PTSD. Chris was a giver not a taker. He, along with a friend and neighbor, Chad Littlefield, were murdered trying to help a young man that had served six months in Iraq and claimed to have PTSD.

Now I need to tell you about all of the blessings.

Southwest Airlines flew in any SEAL and their family from any airport to the funeral... free of charge. The employees donated buddy passes and one lady worked for four days without much of a break to see that it happened.  Volunteers were at both airports in Dallas to drive them to the hotel.

The Marriott Hotel reduced their rates to $45 a night and cleared the hotel for only SEAL's and family.

The Midlothian, TX Police Department paid the $45 a night for each room.  I would guess there were about 200 people staying at the hotel, 100 of them were SEALs.

Two large buses were chartered (an unknown donor paid the bill) to transport people to the different events and they also had a few rental cars (donated).

The police and secret service were on duty 24 hours during the stay at our hotel.

At the Kyle house, the Texas DPS parked a large motor home in front to block the view from reporters. It remained there the entire five days for the SEALs to meet in and so they could use the restroom there instead of the bathroom in the house.

 

Taya, their two small children and both sets of parents were staying in the home. Only a hand full of SEALs went into the home as they had different duties and meetings were held sometimes on an hourly basis.

It was a huge coordination of many different events and security. Derek was assigned to be a Pall Bearer, to escort Chris' body when it was transferred from the Midlothian Funeral Home to the Arlington Funeral Home, and to be with Taya.  A tough job! Taya seldom came out of her bedroom. The house was full with people from the church and other family members that would come each day to help. I spent one morning in a bedroom with Chris' mom and the next morning with Chad Littlefield's parents (the other man murdered with Chris).

 

George W Bush and his wife Laura, met and talked to everyone on the Seal Team one on one. They went behind closed doors with Taya for quite a while. They had prayer with us all. You can tell when people were sincere and caring.

Nolan Ryan sent his cooking team, a huge grill and lots of steaks, chicken and hamburgers. They set up in the front yard and fed people all day long including the 200 SEALs and their families.

The next day a local BBQ restaurant set up a buffet in front of the house and fed all once again. Food was plentiful and all were taken care of. The family's church kept those inside the house well fed.

Jerry Jones, the man everyone loves to hate, was a rock star. He made sure that we all were taken care of. His wife and he were just making sure everyone was taken care of....Class... He donated the use of Cowboy Stadium for the services because so many wanted to attend. The charter buses transported us to the stadium on Monday at 10:30 am.  Every car, bus, motorcycle was searched with bomb dogs and police. I am not sure if kooks were making threats trying to make a name for themselves or if so many SEALs in one place was a security risk, I don't know. We willingly obliged. No purses went into the stadium!

 

We were taken to The Legends room high up and a large buffet was available. That was for about 300 people. We were growing.

A Medal of Honor recipient was there, lots of secret service and police and Sarah Palin and her husband. She looked nice, this was a very formal military service.

The service started at 1:00 pm and when we were escorted onto the field I was shocked. We heard that about 10,000 people had come to attend also. They were seated in the stadium seats behind us. It was a beautiful and emotional service. The Bagpipe and drum corps were wonderful and the Texas A&M men's choir stood through the entire service and sang right at the end. We were all in tears.

The next day was the 200-mile procession from Midlothian, TX to Austin for burial. It was a cold, drizzly, windy day, but the people were out.

We had dozens of police motorcycles riders, freedom riders, five chartered buses and lots of cars. You had to have a pass to be in the procession and still it was huge.

Two helicopters circled the procession with snipers sitting out the side door for protection.

 It was the longest funeral procession ever in the state of Texas. People were everywhere. The entire route was shut down ahead of us, the people were lined up on the side of the road the entire way.

Firemen were down on one knee, police officers were holding their hats over their hearts, children waving flags, veterans saluting as we went by.

Every bridge had fire trucks with large flags displayed from their tall ladders, people all along the entire 200 miles were standing in the cold weather. It was so heartwarming.  Taya rode in the hearse with Chris' body so Derek rode the route with us. I was so grateful to have that time with him.

 

The service was at Texas National Cemetery. Very few are buried there and you have to apply to get in . It is like people from the Civil War, Medal of Honor winners, a few from the Alamo and all the historical people of Texas.

It was a nice service and the Freedom Riders surrounded the outside of the entire cemetery to keep the crazy church people from Kansas that protest at military funerals away from us.

Each SEAL put his Trident (metal SEAL badge) on the top of Chris' casket, one at a time. A lot hit it in with one blow. Derek was the only one to take four taps to put his in and it was almost like he was caressing it as he did it.

Another Tearful moment

 

After the service Governor Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, invited us to the governor's mansion. She stood at the door, greeted each of us individually, and gave each of the SEALs a coin of Texas. She was a sincere, compassionate, and gracious hostess. We were able to tour the ground floor and then went into the garden for beverages and BBQ. So many of the Seal team guys said that after they get out they are moving to Texas.

They remarked that they had never felt so much love and hospitality. The charter buses then took the guys to the airport to catch their returning flights. Derek just now called and after a 20 hours flight he is back in his spot, in a dangerous land on the other side of the world, protecting America

We just wanted to share with you, the events of a quite emotional, but blessed week."

 

To this day, no one in the White House has ever acknowledged Chris Kyle; his service, his death, his duty, his generosity, his caring, his life.

However, the President can call a sports person and congratulate him on his bravery for announcing to the world that he is gay.

He can say on national television that someone, a man who has committed a crime and was shot by police in the line of duty, would have made him a good son.

The SEALS have asked that you please, keep this moving if you think Chris Kyle would have made a good son.