GLORIA BURBANK
Marriages
NORMAN BURBANK
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise - November 24, 1960
VAIL PASS TOLL NOW SEVEN.
Four deaths on Vail Pass within a week have raised the total number of lives lost on Vail Pass this year to seven.
Monday's early morning accident claimed the lives of Mrs. Gloria BURBANK, 26, and her five-month old son, Dale. Mrs. BURBANK's husband Norman, escaped with minor injuries, but their two-year old daughter, Christie, had a broken leg and internal injuries.
The Burbanks were enroute to Redondo Beach, Calif. to attend the funeral of Mr. Burbank's father. Mr. Burbank is an airman stationed at Selfridge AFB near Detroit.
Mrs. BURBANK was driver of the car coming west on Vail Pass, according to Patrolman Jim SEABRY. She came around a curve on dry pavement, saw an icy spot ahead, and applied the brakes. The car went out of control, through guard rails and down an embankment three miles west of the pass summit. BURBANK was found walking along the edge of the road in a state of shock by a truck driver, Jaspar WILSON. The little girl was found in a snowbank by George T. COWAN, a Continental Trailways driver who had stopped the bus at the accident scene. COWAN said he was helping the truck driver assist BURBANK when he heard the cries of a child. He slipped and slid through 2-foot snow down the hill to the overturned car and found the bodies of Mrs. BURBANK and the baby. While searching through the wreckage, he again heard the cry and found the child 100 feet from the Car. BURBANK may have been carrying the child from the wreckage to the snowbank before climbing to the highway in search of help.
BURBANK was taken to the Leadville hospital and the child was taken to Fitzsimmons in Denver.
Mr. BURBANK's mother, Mrs. Joseph BURBANK arrived in Denver Tuesday morning and will be joined there by her son, when he is released from the hospital. The remains of Mrs. Gloria BURBANK and the baby are being shipped by rail from Eagle to Los Angeles. The Bowman Mortuary of Eagle is in charge of arrangements.
Ironically, 23-year old Sandra SMITH, killed just a week before the BURBANK deaths, three miles from the scene of Monday's accident on Vail Pass, was shipped by Bowman's to Los Angeles, the home of her mother, Mrs. Fred SCHOTT for burial.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 1 - November 21, 1960
