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Donald Armstrong

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Death Date: June 6, 1950
Age at Death: 25

Burial Details

Cemetery Location: Longmont, Colorado

Obituaries

Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - June 8, 1950

Two Highway Deaths This Week
Denver Man Smothered in Hot Oil
Two men were killed in two car accidents in Eagle county this week with the first fatality occurring late Sunday afternoon near Dotsero.
Kenneth LeRoy Simillion, 21, of Glenwood Springs, was crushed beneath a car when it left the Dotsero Sweetwater road, one-half mile north of Dotsero around 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon, carrying a load of Glenwood young people on a Sunday outing. The driver of the car and four passengers were all seriously injured and hospitalized.
Injured are: Charles E. Halford, 24, owner and driver of the car, who is in the Glenwood Hospital with a broken leg and head injuries; Beatrice Fulbright, 21, face lacerations, broken nose and puncture wound in right leg; Betty Schneff, 22, back injury; both girls are in the Glenwood Hospital. In Porter's are Melvin Cook, 24, broken left arm; Francis Peck, 18, broken left leg.
Donald Armstrong, 25, lost his life in the second fatality Tuesday morning, when his wrecked transport truck poured two feet of boiling oil over his unconscious body, killing him almost instantly.
The tragedy occurred around 8 a.m. Tuesday, four miles west of the summit of Vail Pass. The truck carried a load of oil, pre-heated in Denver and brought to the road oiling job between Dowd and Wolcott. The truck apparently was traveling at a speed too fast to negotiate a curve on the mountain road, and skidded over 400 feet, then rolled for 150 more, throwing the engine out of the chassis, separating the tank from the truck, and completely demolishing the vehicle. Armstrong was thrown from the truck and knocked unconscious. Patrolman Jim Seabry stated the tank, holding oil heated to a temperature of about 240 degrees, burst open "like a watermelon," and spilled forth its contents over Armstrong's body, submerging it in two feet of hot oil.
He was discovered a short time later by two truck drivers who reported to Mr. Seabry. Coroner Todd Bowman of Eagle stated that he believed death to be almost instant.
Surviving are his wife and three children of Longmont; his father and two brothers also of Longmont.
The remains were taken from Bowman's Chapel here, to Longmont for burial Wednesday.

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