Royce, Orville Elmer

Rome Sentinel
December 17, 1962

Vienna - Funeral services for 13 year old Orville Elmer Royce, fatally injured Saturday afternoon in a tractor mishap, will be held Wednesday at the family home here on Route 49.

The victim was the son of John D. and Nettie Brown Royce.

The Rev. Roger Cota, pastor of the Vienna Methodist Church will officiate at the services and burial will be in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Young Royce was believed to have been injured when the long winter coat he was wearing apparently became caught in the power take-off while he was getting up onto the tractor which he had operated many times before, according to his father.

Trooper R. C. Hinds said the elder Royce stated that his son went out to the barn about 3:35 pm to clean the barn and spread manure. About 4:30 John Royce Jr, 14, asked his father where his brother was as the tractor was near the barn in a field unattended.

When the two investigated they found Orville tangled in the tractors power take-off.

The father told Trooper Hinds that Orville usually stopped the tractor after the attached spreader was empty, before returning to the barn and cleaning it off.

Dr. Marvin Brown, Cleveland, pronounced the youth dead from chest injuries. Oneida County Coroner Thomas A. Cox rendered a verdict at the scene of accidental death due to a crushed chest.

Orville E. Royce was born October 5, 1949 in Oneida. He was a student at North Bay Area School, and attended the Vienna Methodist Sunday School.

Survivors include his parents, four sisters, Jeannine, Ellen, Sandra and Donnette, a brother John D. Royce Jr., all at home, his material grandmother Mrs. Mina Brown, Vienna, and paternal grandfather Elmer Royce, Fountain, Fla.