Hallie Owen Smith
HALLIE OWEN SMITH, daughter of ETHEL TOPSY IRVINE and GILES HAWKINS SMITH, was born in 1904 in Missouri,11208 and died March 16, 1923 in Brawley, Imperial, California.10390 She is buried in Riverview Cemetery, Brawley, Imperial, California.456
Obituaries
San Francisco Examiner, March 17, 192310390
GIRL KILLED IN SCHOOL BLAST
BRAWLEY, March 16.—The explosion of a gas generating plant at the Brawley High School while classes were in session late this afternoon caused the death of one student and severe injury to several others. The building was practically wrecked. Miss Hallie Smith, 16 years old, a senior, was killed when she was caught under the wreckage of the building.
Catherine Hovely, secretary to Principal Momyer, and Richard Powell, janitor were the most severely injured. Many other students who were in the building at the time of the explosion received less serious injuries. The explosion shook the town like an earthquake and demolished the entire front of the brick and concrete building. Windows within a radius of half a mile of the school were shattered.
Fortunately the blast occurred while most of the classes were being held in the rear rooms of the building. A panic was averted by teachers and officers, who marched the classes from the tottering structure in an orderly manner. Miss Smith was in a corridor when the structure collapsed and was pinned beneath the wreckage. Her body was rescued by her schoolmates, who also freed Miss Hovely and Powell from the pile of bricks, concrete and timbers.
Weekly Democrat-News, March 29, 192311208
SERVICE FOR HALLIE SMITH
With Reverent Mien, and Uncovered Heads, Community Pays Final Honors to Explosion Victim
While the entire community mourned, with many a tear and stifled sob, the body of Miss Hallie Smith was tenderly and lovingly born Sunday to its resting place in Riverview Cemetery, in sight of the Brawley Union high school within which she met her death Friday afternoon and which so nearly paved the charnel house for scores of others, in the explosion that killed her, wrecked the structure and seriously injured Richard Powell and Miss Catherine Hovely.
Funeral services were held from the Presbyterian Church. The edifice was crowded with 500 persons, schoolmates and friends who gathered to tender the last sad honors to the girl they loved so well. Throughout the impressive ceremonies, was a tenseness of attitude and mind that revealed the strain not yet over from the catastrophe of Friday.
Rev. E. L. B. McClellan, pastor of the church, in charge of the services, whose son was among those who escaped uninjured, made a powerful appeal to those who had been saved to turn their thoughts to the Christian life in thankfulness to Him who spared them for inscrutable purposes of his own.
The pastor briefly reviewed the life of Miss Smith, from her birth in Missouri in 1904, through her life in Florida, when she joined the Presbyterian Church, with her parents at the age of 12, to her activities in Brawley. She was a member of the Alamorio Methodist Church at the time of her death, of the Presbyterian Christian Endeavor Society and was president of the high school's girl's league.
Warm tribute was paid to her life and work among her schoolmates, to her beautiful Christian character, to her devoted spirit and to the qualities of character that endeared her associates and friends.s
Scripture reading and prayer were by Rev. B. J. Benefiel, pastor of the Alamorio Methodist Church, and prayer was also offered by Rev. Mr. Davis of the Brawley Methodist Church.
Two songs were sung, a solo by Mrs. Nelson, "Asleep in Jesus," and a duet, "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" by Miss Mary Shouse and Mrs Nelson (with Miss Winifred Taecker, a former roommate of Miss Smith's as accompanist.)
Many beautiful floral offerings surrounded the casket, with a mass of ferns and lillies above it.
The committal service was read at the grave in Riverview cemetery by Rev. Mr. McClellan, more than 100 automobiles forming the concourse. Pall bearers were young men friends of the girl who had passed, Paul Van Doran, Sam Strieby, Roy Taecker, Ward Casey, George Casey and Fred Ewing.
Seated at the right of the auditorium were the 30 members of the senior class of the high school, with the members of the school board.—Brawly, Calif., News.
Census Records
| Date | Location | Enumerated Names |
|---|---|---|
| April 30, 19108964 | Miami, Saline, Missouri |
|
| February 14, 19204624 | Miami, Saline, Missouri |
