Clarence Day, 25, of Fountain Green, a grandson of Mrs. Anna Gittings of LaHarpe and a nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Leland S. Hobart of Carthage route three, was killed Saturday night about midnight when struck by a car driven by Joe Huston, Colchester, on state route 10 a mile and a half east of Colchester.

Max Breeden, 23, of Birmingham suffered leg bone fractures when he was struck by the same car a moment after it struck Day.  Breeden had stopped at the Gallahue-Day accident, talked with the men to find no one was hurt, and was walking back down the road to his car when struck by the car, he reported.

Breeden was brought to the St. Francis hosiptal [sic] where Dr. W. P. Standard is attending him. He suffered severe fractures of both bones just below the right knee.  Each bone is separated into three pieces, the main parts being separated by a smaller piece of bone at the point of impact.  He also has a broken bone at the left ankle.

Day was standing on or near the slab talking with George Gallahue of Colchester, following a minor collision between the Day and Gallahue cars a few minutes earlier when struck by the car driven by Huston.  All three cars were going west.

He was hurled to the pavement and died within a minute or two.  The body was left there for the arrival of Coroner Jake Davis.  Day suffered crushing injuries to the head and probably fractures of both legs.

The victim was a veteran of the recent war, having served with the 108th General Hospital corps which was organized at Macomb and which was stationed in England and France for 28 months. He entered service in 1942 and was discharged in January of this year.

He has been attending the University of Illinois as a law student and was in this locality to spend the holidays with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Leland S. Hobart, of route three, near Fountain Green, at the time of the accident.  He has been in Macomb to spend Saturday evening.  He was riding along at the time of the accident in his car, a Studebaker sedan.

Coroner Davis said that Day's car side-swiped the Gallahue car as Day was passing Gallahue, the right front corner of the Day car striking the left rear corner of the Gallahue car, a Dodge sedan.

The collision threw the Gallahue car off to the north side of the slab where it struck a culvert.  Day pulled his car to the shoulder of the highway about 30 rods in front of Gallahue and walked back to the Gallahue car, inquired whether anyone was hurt, and was exchanging license numbers with Gallahue and discussing the accident with him as he stood beside the car next to the slab.

Russell Carroll of Colchester, who was riding with Gallahue as a hitchhiker to Colchester, got out of the Gallahue car and attempted to flag down a car approaching from the east.  The car didn't slow down and Carroll stepped back quickly to keep from being hit, he told the coroner.  When he walked back to the edge of the road again he saw Day's body on the road.

The car, a Chevrolet sedan, driven by Huston and owned by John Kessler of Colchester, stopped in a short distance and the occupants returned to the scene.  They examined Day and found he was either dead or dying.  He was lying crossways the slab with his feet about six inches from the north edge.  He was not thrown far from the point where he was standing when struck.

Coroner Davis said occupants of the Kessler car reported that they did not see Day before the car struck him because of bright lights from a car which they were meeting as they passed the Gallahue car.  The driver reported he stopped when he heard a noise, indicating the car struck something.

The coroner said that he was told the Kessler car was stopped some distance down the road, that three of the boys got out and returned to the accident scene, and that the other three left in the car, going on to their homes in Colcehster [sic].  Officers later got the youths from their homes for questioning.  Breeden reported that as far as he recalled the car never stopped at the accident scene.

The coroner said none of the witnesses were able to state clearly whether Day was standing on the edge of the slab or just off it on the dirt shoulder.

The rear bumper and a right door handle on the Kessler car were torn off, but the coroner said it was not known whether that was caused by striking Day, or whether the Kessler car also sideswiped the Gallahue car.  If it struck the Gallahue car, he said, it would have been at the same point the Day car struck it earlier and thus it was impossible to tell whether that car was struck a second time.

Riding in the car with Huston were the owner, John Kessler, William Roberts, David Logan, Harold Runie, and Gaylord Yetter, a group of young men from Colchester who were returning home from Macomb.

Most of the witnesses were questioned by the coroner and State's Attorney Keith F. Scott at the state police headquarters in Macomb following the accident.

Day was the fourth member of his family to meet death in a traffic accident.

His father, Charles Day, and his step-mother, were killed in a collision between their car and a train Kansas two or three years ago.  A brother, Charles Day, was killed in a car accident in on the highway east of Carthage about eight or ten years ago.

Day was a son of Charles and Mary (Gittings) Day and was born March 9, 1921, at Arnold, Kans.  At the age of four years he came to Illinois and made his home with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Day of near Fountain Green.  They are now deceased.  Since then he had considered his home with his aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Hobart, also with his sister and her husband, H. C. and Mary D. VanDeventer of Charleston.  The latter have been here visiting the Hobart's the past few days.

In addition to the sister, he is survived by a brother, Fay Day, who is now attending Harvard university, Cambridge, Mass.  A sister, Dorothy, predeceased him.

Day was business manager of the Courier, Western newspaper, while in college there.

Funeral services were held at 1 p. m. December 24, at the Majorville church with Rev. R. W. VanAlstyne officiating.  Burial was in the Majorville cemetery.

See also: Charlie Day (father) Mary Jane Gittings (mother) Walnut School District 101