Joyce Elaine Stambaugh, 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willard Stambaugh of Bader, was killed Sunday evening by the discharge of a 20 gauge single barrel shotgun in the hands of her brother, Arthur.
According to Sheriff Robert A. Lashbrook of Rushville, Stambaugh had returned from a hunting trip and stopped at their home in Bader, picking up the couple’s five children and driving the nearby Sheldons Grove to buy some groceries.
He left the children in the car when he went into the store. Arthur, 11, apparently picked up the gun to look at it and it accidentally discharged, the charge going through the right arm into the chest of the girl. She was rushed by ambulance to the Beardstown hospital, but was dead on arrival. None of the other children were hit.
Joyce Elaine was born in Macomb on Sept. 18, 1946, a daughter of Willard Dean and Mary Elizabeth Kennison Stambaugh. She had resided in Bader about five years, and was an eighth grade student at the Astoria grade school.
She is survived by her parents; two sisters, Patricia and Mary; three brothers, Arthur, John and Jackie; her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Stambaugh of Astoria and Mrs. Nannie Catlett of Louisville, Ky. A brother preceded her in death.
Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at the South Fulton Church near Astoria, with burial in the South Fulton Cemetery. Rev. Earl Stambaugh was in charge of the services.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus