Ward, Joe Ebb

Picher Oklahoma, Special. [A photo of Ward] First Lt. Joe Ebb Ward, 23 year old air Force radar observer from Picher was killed instantly Thursday night when he parachuted from a flaming F89 scorpion jet place just before it made a crash landing at Fort Snelling, near Minneapolis Minnesota. The accident was one in a series at the airport. Fifteen lives have been lost there since June. ... Lt. Robert P. Couch, 26, of st. Paul, pilot of the plane from which st. Ward leaped, was taken to the Veterans hospital in Minneapolis in critical condition. The accident occurred as War and Couch were preparing to land their plane on the runway of the airport. Observers said the jet circled the runway twice, then began to fall. Ward leaped from the plane when it was about 100 feet from the ground. The Picher airman was killed instantly when his parachute did not have enough time to open, a report said. Lt. Couch, who remained in the plane, was critically burned. Ward and another air Force officer, Col. Oscar Coen, were grounded in Tulsa Oklahoma last week while flying a plane from California to the Minneapolis base. The delay resulted when one jet developed a defective fuel line...Lt. Ward's grandmother, Mrs. Mabel Wright, 315? South Connell avenue Picher, and a friend, Mrs. Paul Thomas went to Tulsa and picked up the officer. Ward visited his grandmother until he left for Tulsa Thursday noon to board his plane for Minneapolis. Born in Picher, Ward lived with his grandmother until he enlisted in the Air Force in Jul 1953. He was graduated from Picher high school and Northeastern A & M college at Miami...surviving are his wife, Mrs. Vivian Ward; his stepfather and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Eatmon of Anchorage Alaska; is maternal grandmother, Mae Wright, and his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Maudine Sutton, Fort Worth Texas. Paul Thomas funeral home, Picher, will announce services and burial later.

Funeral services for First Lt. Joe Ebb Ward, 23 year old air force radar observer, will be conducted at the Methodist church at Picher at 2 pm Monday. The Reb. G. E. Elswick will officiate...burial in G.A.R. cemetery, at Miami. Pallbearers will be Richard Scott, Lawrence Stanley, Robert Jordan, Jackie Bayless, Jack Smith and Dennis Wood...A fellow officer who accompanied Ward's body to Picher said Lt. Robert P. Couce , 26, of St. Paul, pilot of the plane from which Ward leaped, died Friday of burns and other injuries received when the jet crashed. Note: There are two spellings of the pilot's name.