Second Lieutenant Lawrence Sterman Lawver

World War II US Army Air Forces Wright Field, Ohio Service Number: Born: June 20, 1913 Inducted: Died: September 8, 1942 in Newark, Ohio Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Freeport, IL     Lindenwald Section, Lot 43

Son of Sterman H. and Rosa Mae Crago Lawver prev of Eckley then living in Freeport, IL.

Rocky Mountain News - 9 September 1942, page 3

Colorado Man, Seven Others Die as Plane Crashes Into House

Newark, Ohio, Sept. 8. - Firemen and police tonight were searching the ruins of an apartment house for a possible eighth victim of an army medium bomber crash which wrecked and fired a five-family building and a private home in a Newark residential section today.

Five soldiers and a civilian, who were on the twin-motored bomber when it went into a "power dive with its motors racing terrifically," died in the crash, and an aged woman was crushed or burned to death in the street. The plane plunged into a house, swerved and struck the apartment and then chopped off the front of a church before hitting the street.

Officials at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, identified the occupants of the plane as Col. Douglas M. Kilpatrick 34, Houma, La., the pilot; Second Lt. Lawrence S. Lawver, 29, Wray, Co., the copilot; Lt. Russell E. Newlin, 30, Indianapolis, Ind.: Pvt. Charles Watson, Dayton, stationed at Lunken Field, Ohio, and Corp. R.A. Arens, Dayton, with the Coast Artillery at Paterson, N.J. The two enlisted men were on leave and were riding east in the plane.

The other victim in the plane was O.A. Pecon, a civilian ground crew chief at Wright Field.

Newark police identified the woman killed on the ground as Mrs. Dolly Campbell. Another woman, a Mrs. Weston, who lived in the now demolished apartment building, was still missing and police believe she may have perished in the wreckage.

Three persons received injuries at the time of the crash. One woman suffered a broken back.

Two of the plane's crew members attempted to parachute to safety, but presumably because of the low altitude their chutes did not open.

The body of Lawver was found tangled in his badly snarled parachute on a B&O Railroad loading platform.

The other flier who tried to bail out plummeted through the roof of the apartment house which the plane struck and fell into the suite of Mrs. Mary Davis. His identity was not known immediately.

Public relations officers at Wright Field confirmed that the plane was the one which left the field at 11:19 a.m. today for Mitchell Field, NY.

Witnesses said the plane "went into a kind of tail spin and power dive" and caught fire soon after striking the first house. At least three private homes were reported to have been set aflame by sparks from the burning wreckage. All telephone lines in the neighborhood were severed.

Freeport Journal Standard, Freeport IL - Sept. 9, 1942

Freeport Man Dies In Bomber Crash in Ohio

Newark, Sept 9 - Salvage workers cleaning up the wreckage of a two motored bomber that smashed into an apartment house today found the remains of what they believed to be a ninth victim.

Eight bodies - six occupants of the plane and two women civilians - had already been recovered from the debris of yesterday's mid-town crash. Neither army nor local officials were able to establish at once identity of the last victim.

Second Lieut, Lawrence Sterman Lawver, 29, son of Mr. and Mrs. S.H. Lawver, 609 West Pleasant street, a graduate of Freeport high school, where he was prominent in athletics and debating circles, was one of the six occupants of a United States bomber from Wright Field, Ohio, killed Tuesday when their bomber spun crazily from the sky and plunged into a residential section of Newark, Ohio, a city of about 30,000 inhabitants, according to press dispatches received here.

First word that Second Lieut. Lawver had been killed in a crash was received by the parents about 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon when a telephone call came from another son in the service, Major Kenneth Wilbur Lawver, stationed at Patterson Filed, Fairfield, Ohio, who told only that his brother had been killed and the body was being brought back to Freeport.

Another brother, Lieutenant Commander Rowland Clifford Lawver, is in the United States naval services, being stationed on the USS Griffin, now believed to be in the Southern Pacific war zone in the vicinity of Australia. The family received a letter from him only yesterday, stating that he was well.

Freeport Journal Standard, Freeport IL - Sept. 9, 1942

Second Lieut. Lawrence Lawver.

Funeral services for the late Second Lieut. Lawrence Lawver were held at the Walker mortuary this morning. Rev. H.T. Chenoweth, pastor of the First Methodist church conducted the service. Interment was made at Oakland. Active bearers consisted of a detail from Camp Grant, while the following men acted as honorary bearers: Frank Krehl, Benno Ibler, Robert Schmelzle, Matthew A. Marvin, Robert W. Hyatt Jr., and Bert P. Snow.

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