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Adelbert (Bert) Nelson

Posted 2008-06-08 by Maurine
Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, Arizona
May 4, 1962

Sudden death of Bert Nelson saddens friends

Townspeople were shocked Thursday of last week when BERT NELSON, 17, popular High School athlete, was killed in an automobile accident at the corner of Mohave and North Madison Streets at 6:10 p.m.

The boy’s death came just an hour before he was to be honored, along with his fellow athletes, at a banquet at Rancho de los Caballeros. The banquet program was changed to make it a memorial to young Nelson.

Nelson had been at the ranch swimming with his team-mates and had just delivered Russell Cooley, Jr., to the Cooley home in Cassandro Tract before going to his home on the Phoenix Highway to dress for the banquet. As he drove east on Mohave Street, alone and still in bathing trunks in a 1960 Chevrolet station wagon belonging to his parents, Mr. & Mrs. William A. Nelson, there was a collision with a 1961 Falcon sedan driven by Walter Mathis.

In the front seat with Mr. Mathis was his wife, and in the back seat were three of their children, Jason, 12, Doris, 8, and Keith, 6, Mrs. Mathis incurred minor injuries while other occupants of that car were uninjured. She was admitted to the Community Hospital.

Mr. Mathis was driving south on Madison Street from his home toward town. According to Chief of Police Dick Savage, one of the three officers, who investigated the accident, Nelson was driving fast and Mathis did not heed a Yield Right-Of Way” sign on Madison at the point where that street intersects with Mohave. Officer Ralph Butler cited Mathis for failure to yield. Deputy Sheriff Melvin Reed was the investigating officer.

Investigation indicated, says Chief Savage, that the two cars collided on an angle, that the Nelson car then spun complete around, rolled over three times and landed on its top. It was on the third roll, he says, that young Nelson was thrown out of the car for a distance of 25 feet. He was killed instantly. Both vehicles, says Savage, were a total loss. The vehicle driven by Mathis was owned by the United Placer Industries, Inc., of Scottsdale, the firm for which Mathis worked.

Funeral services for Nelson were held in the Wickenburg Chapel at 5 p.m. Saturday with the Rev. Robert Jenkins, pastor of the First Baptist Church, of which the boy was a member, officiating.

Burial was in the Wickenburg Cemetery. Members of the W. Club were honorary pallbearers.

On Friday afternoon of last week, at the request of his classmates, High School officials called a special assembly as a memorial service. Rev. Jenkins conducted the service and members of the senior class sang.

Bert was short for ADELBERT PRESTON NELSON who was born June 9, 1944, in Henderson, Nev. He moved here with his parents in February, 1948.

He graduated from the Wickenburg elementary School four years ago and was a senior in the High School at the time of his death.



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