43 Years Ago Aug. 27 1966 Dad Wanted Us To Remember Marty Every Year On This Day
At about 2:00 a.m. early that Sat. morning, Debbie and I were camping out in the '53 Chrysler in the garage. We were in the backyard talking on the back porch step and then Midnight, our dog started barking, we heard sirens going for a long time which was very unusual in Nevada. I then heard the phone ring, then I heard Mom screaming and crying, I ran in the back garage door into the kitchen she was screaming "call an ambulance!" she looked at me and she said "Marty is dead" Dad was on the phone talking to Ingles Ferry. Mr. Ferry called Dad and said "I have your son's body here, he was killed in a car accident, you need to come up and identify his body and pick up his personal items (billfold, change, car keys) it was getting close to 3:00 a.m. Debbie ran home when she heard Mom screaming and crying. Dad was in a daze, shock. They both got dressed and went to the funeral home, I stayed downstairs by myself. They identified Marty, picked out a casket and then came home. I had went up stairs and told Marilyn Marty was killed in a car accident. Galen and Thurman were asleep in the little bedroom, Dad told me not to wake them up. Mom remembered she had not paid the insurance payment for a burial plan they had for the entire family, it was $1.00 a month for each of us. So she wrote the check out and Dad and I went up to the post office to mail it. As the morning sun rose that unforgettable devastating morning, Galen was coming down the stairs, I will never forget Dad looking up at him and saying "Marty will not be coming home ever again" Then Thurman came down and Dad told him the same, Thurman did not understand he was only 10. He came to me and said "will Marty be sitting with us at the funeral thing" Dad had waited until about 6:00 a.m. to call Barbara and Robert, they came in immediately. Dad called Uncle Galen and Aunt Opal to help with the funeral arrangements. Then about 10:00 that day the Swan family came to our house on Dad's request to find out what happened?
Ron Swan, Marty's friend had been drinking and driving and wildly headed out on 71 highway from the White Grill after a dance at the pavilion where they met their girlfriends from Butler. Ron had a fight with his girlfriend about midnight. Leaving the dance in their car, stopping at The White Grill they headed home to Butler. Ron jumped in his car to try and catch them. Marty, Jerald and Alan Plamer tried to stop him. Marty and Jerald were worried about him so they got in the car with him. Marty was in the middle of the front and Jerald beside him. The car was a 1966 red Dodge sedan, no seat belts in 1966, no safety glass and a metal dash. What Mr. Atkinson, the Highway Patrolman, Dad's friend and former co-worker when Dad was a Policeman and our neighbor down main street worked the accident. Dad also requested him to over come to the house and talk. I hid behind a tree by the driveway and listened. He said Ron was going at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, near Rich Hill he missed the curve, lost control of the car, the car hit a mound of dirt between the new 4 lane highway and flipped at least 3 times and landed upside down. Marty was thrown through the window and then the car rolled again and hit him. He was alive after the accident and was talking, Jerald said he was saying "God help me" Mr Atkinson also said "if Marty had been taken to the hospital immediately he would have lived, he bleed to death" There was no life saving ambulances in Nevada in 1966, the County Counter which was Ingles Ferry responded and pronounce Marty dead at the accident scene.
Dad also requested Jerald come over to the house after Jerald got out of Butler hospital, he was thrown out the passenger door and only had "minor" injuries. I was over across the street at Donna Stark's front porch that morning and I saw Jerald walk up to our house and go in to talk to Dad and Mom. Jerald did not attend Marty's funeral, he used the excuse he was to injured in the hospital to go. Funny, he never even had a scratch on him that I noticed.The talk around town was that Marty's guy "Bart Lytel" that cut his hair was called to the funeral home to style Marty's "Beatle" style hair. He used several combs and was selling them to Marty's friends??
Marty's funeral was on the next Tuesday, the first day of school in Nevada. Barbara had taken all us kids to J.C. Penney's on the square and bought me and Marilyn dresses and Galen and Thurman suits to wear to the funeral.
Every anniversary of Marty's accident Dad would relive the entire accident. He told Mom that "none of us cared or remembered" I told Mom we could never forget.
Ron Swan, Marty's friend had been drinking and driving and wildly headed out on 71 highway from the White Grill after a dance at the pavilion where they met their girlfriends from Butler. Ron had a fight with his girlfriend about midnight. Leaving the dance in their car, stopping at The White Grill they headed home to Butler. Ron jumped in his car to try and catch them. Marty, Jerald and Alan Plamer tried to stop him. Marty and Jerald were worried about him so they got in the car with him. Marty was in the middle of the front and Jerald beside him. The car was a 1966 red Dodge sedan, no seat belts in 1966, no safety glass and a metal dash. What Mr. Atkinson, the Highway Patrolman, Dad's friend and former co-worker when Dad was a Policeman and our neighbor down main street worked the accident. Dad also requested him to over come to the house and talk. I hid behind a tree by the driveway and listened. He said Ron was going at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, near Rich Hill he missed the curve, lost control of the car, the car hit a mound of dirt between the new 4 lane highway and flipped at least 3 times and landed upside down. Marty was thrown through the window and then the car rolled again and hit him. He was alive after the accident and was talking, Jerald said he was saying "God help me" Mr Atkinson also said "if Marty had been taken to the hospital immediately he would have lived, he bleed to death" There was no life saving ambulances in Nevada in 1966, the County Counter which was Ingles Ferry responded and pronounce Marty dead at the accident scene.
Dad also requested Jerald come over to the house after Jerald got out of Butler hospital, he was thrown out the passenger door and only had "minor" injuries. I was over across the street at Donna Stark's front porch that morning and I saw Jerald walk up to our house and go in to talk to Dad and Mom. Jerald did not attend Marty's funeral, he used the excuse he was to injured in the hospital to go. Funny, he never even had a scratch on him that I noticed.The talk around town was that Marty's guy "Bart Lytel" that cut his hair was called to the funeral home to style Marty's "Beatle" style hair. He used several combs and was selling them to Marty's friends??
Marty's funeral was on the next Tuesday, the first day of school in Nevada. Barbara had taken all us kids to J.C. Penney's on the square and bought me and Marilyn dresses and Galen and Thurman suits to wear to the funeral.
Every anniversary of Marty's accident Dad would relive the entire accident. He told Mom that "none of us cared or remembered" I told Mom we could never forget.
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