8/2/1941
Donald Joseph Horan, son of Carl J. and Lenett Ann Horan, was born in Des Moines, August 7, 1923.
He graduated from the local high school with the class of 1940. He came to Knoxville with his parents in 1930, when his father accepted a position as bookkeeper at the Ford garage.
His father died in 1931.
The deceased is survived by his mother and a brother, Carl James Horan, who is in the army, now stationed at Camp Polk, Louisiana.
Funeral services were held Tuesday forenoon, at 9 o'clock, from St. Anthony's Catholic church, in Knoxville, conducted by Rev. Father Garrity, and interment was made in the St. Ambrose cemetery, in Des Moines, Iowa.
They Were riding in the 1941
Chevrolet five-passenger coupe belonging to Lloyd's father, and in going up a hill on the road, three and one-half miles east and one and one-fourth miles south of Knoxville, near the Will Kelderman home, Lloyd, who was driving, pulled to the left to avoid striking a parked truck which was on the west side of the road.
Just as they pulled back into the road, they saw a loaded truck, driven by John Spencer, coming from the south. Lloyd swerved the car sharply to the right to avoid crashing head-on with the truck. In so doing, the wheels hit a shallow grader ditch on the west side of the road, the car skidded across the road into the grader ditch on the east side.
Coming out of the skid, the car was cramped badly to the right and when the wheels struck the hard road, the car upset twice, throwing Hayes out of the car: he suffered only minor injuries.
Horan was thrown against the interior of the car with such force that he suffered a fractured skull. Walker suffered a gash over one eye and was otherwise bruised and shaken up.
Will Kelderman, a farmer living nearby rushed to the demolished car and drove the two injured boys into Knoxville. Horan was able to walk at the time and entered the Collins Memorial hospital with little assistance. Meanwhile Hayes stayed with the wreckage until his father and brother arrived.
Horan remained at the local hospital until early evening, his condition becoming more serious. Shortly after 7 o'clock, Dr. R. V. Mater took Donald to Iowa City University hospital where he could receive treatment of specialists. His mother accompanied the ambulance.
X-ray pictures were made at Iowa City, but there was no time to operate. A skull fracture proved fatal, and young Horan died shortly before midnight Saturday night.