Southern, Sam

Sam Southern, 29 years old, who, his friends said, had recently quit his job in a powder mill because he feared death in a possible accident, was instantly killed only six hours after beginning work in the Butte-Kansas Mine near Waco Missouri yesterday afternoon when a slab of dirt and rock fell on him from the roof of a drift in which he was working at the hard rock lead and zinc mine. Southern, who lived at Tuckahoe, was employed as a machine man and began his duties at 7:30 am yesterday. He was killed at 1:30 o'clock.

According to Edgar Y. Ellis of Joplin Missouri, superintendent of the mine, the fall weighed several hundred pounds. Southern was struck on the head and back. His skull was fractured. Luther Smith of Tuckahoe, 16 years old, Southern's helper, was knocked a few feet by the concussion and John Clark of Pittsburg Kansas, a shoveler, was knocked back and against a tub he was filling, receiving a slight injury to his back. Smith was not hurt. An ambulance of the Frank-Sievers undertaking company was called and the body was brought to Joplin to await funeral arrangements, which are incomplete. An inquest is unlikely.

Until recently Southern had been employed at the Dupont Powder Company's plant at Carl Junction Missouri, but quit his job there recently. He was substituting at the mine yesterday for this brother-in-law, Lester Smith, who is ill. The accident yesterday was the first fatal one in the history of the Butte-Kansas Mine, according to Ellis. Mr. Southern is survived by his brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Smith, who reside one-quarter of a mile west of Tuckahoe and with whom he had made his home; his wife, Mrs. Hazel Davis of near Reeds; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Al Southern, who reside on a farm between Reeds and Sarcoxie, and three sisters, Mrs. Lena Devaney of Joplin Missouri, Mrs. Charles Hood of Carthage Missouri, and Mrs. Ophella Melugin of Benson Arizona.