“Can’t Find Integrated Burial Place for Child,” Indianapolis Recorder, May 16, 1959, p. 1, 3 – Transcript || Annotation || Archive
Can’t Find Integrated Burial Place for Child
The cruelty of man added to the stunning grief of a 6-death highway tragedy this week as a local minister sought in vain for an unsegregated place in which to bury his little adopted Korean daughter.
Rev. James Jones, pastor of interracial Peoples Temple which lost four of its leading workers as well as the 4-year-old child in the collision Sunday, said he could not fond a non-jimcrow burial place in all of Indianapolis’ cemeteries.
“Oh, they would have taken little Stephanie in the ‘white’ part, despite her color’” Rev. Jones said. “ But all the cemetery directors refused to allow a place where all of us at the church — dark skinned and Caucasoid — might be buried in the future.
“Finally I decided to stay with my people, and arranged to bury her in a ‘colored’ location” (By “my people,” the minister meant Negroes, though he is white himself.)
Only a 10-year-old boy survived from the interracial carload of church workers returning from a service in Cincinnati after the head-on two-car crash.
Rev. Jones was still in Cincinnati when his wife, Mrs. Marceline Jones, called to tell him of the deaths of the four close friends and the little girl they had adopted last October.
Killed in the pre-dawn smash-up five miles southeast of Shelbyville on U.S 421 were Mrs. Mabel Stewart, 46: Mrs. Pearl Nance, 51, and Mrs. Barbara Payne, 26, all of 661 E 24th; Mrs. Dallas Johnson, social worker at the Indiana Women’s Prison, and little Stephanie E. Jones, Korean war orphan adopted by Rev. and Mrs. Jones, 2327 Broadway.
Robert Zinser, 18, St. Paul, a passenger in the second car, also was killed, although the driver escaped with minor cuts.
According to state police, the crash came when Mrs. Stewart, the driver, started to pass another car. Her auto was struck broadside by an oncoming car driven by Rodger Wullenweber 20, of Adams.
She reportedly jammed her brakes in an effort to avoid the crash, but her car was struck on the right side as it swerved sharply to the left.
All but Zinser and Mrs. Payne died instantly. Zinser, alive when police arrive at the scene, died en route to a hospital.
Mrs. Payne, thrown 15 feet from the mass of crumpled metal which was her car, died eight hours later in W.S Major Hospital, Shelbyville.
Services for Mrs. Nance were held Monday at Peoples Temple and her body was shipped to Detriot for burial.
Joint services were conducted Wednesday morning at the church for Mesadames Stewart and Payne and little Stephanie.
Mrs. Stewart supervised the church’s nursing home at 2356 N. College.
A native of Scottsville, Ky., she had lived here since 1929.
Burial was in New Salem Paragon, with J.C. Wilson Chapel of the Chimes in charge.
A NURSE IN THE HOME operated by the church, Mrs. Nance moved here last December from her native Wheeling, W. Va.
She was training to be a missionary in Africa.
Survivors include three daughters, Mesadames Margaret Henry and Anna Rayford, both of Detroit and Miss Carolyn Nance, Indianapolis; six sons, Hartwell, Harold, Stanley, and Larry Nance, all of Detroit; William Nance, with the U.S. Army in Texas, and Gerald Nance, a soldier in Holland; two sisters, Mrs. Mildred Brooks, Detroit, and Mrs. Edith Rogers, Pottstown, Pa.; a brother, Tom Watkins, New York State, and eight grandchildren.
Mrs. Payne, a native of Monticeno, Ky., had lived here 20 years and was employed at Western Electric.
Burial was in Sutherland Park, with arrangements by Moore and Kirk.
Rites for Mrs. Johnson were held Wednesday in Louisville, with burial there.
Kun Eun Soon, named Stephanie by her foster parents, was buried in Floral Park following Wednesday’s joint services. King and King Funeral Home conducted the rites.
Termed an “exceptional child” by Rev. Jones, she already spoke English fluently.