BENHAM, Frost Leland

Wickenburg (AZ) Graphic Thursday, June 18, 1931, p 1 c 1 F. L. Benham, State Representative, Dies of Auto Injuries Frost L. Benham, 37 years old, manager of the Upper Verde Public Utilities company and a republican member of the tenth Arizona legislature, died at 11:30 o'clock Tuesday morning in the United Verde hospital of injuries received in an automobile accident near Prescott early Monday morning. Mr. Benham went to Prescott Sunday to attend the Smoki ceremonials and in the evening went to the Smoki dance at Granite Gardens. He was starting for home when his automobile skidded on the highway a short distance from the Gardens and turned over. The state representative suffered a fractured right hip and shoulder and also internal injuries, which caused his death. "Frosty" Benham, as numerous friends called him, was born in Ohio, received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, at the age of 21, and then took up residence in Jerome, where he had lived for 16 years. Friends and associates who held him in highest esteem are extending what condolence they can to his widow, the former Miss Ada Turner of Tempe, to whom he was married in 1924. Mr. Benham was serving his second term in the state legislature and is the fourth member of that body to have died since it convened in January. The other three are Thomas Maloney, aged representative from Pima county, who was the victim of an automobile accident while returning to his Tucson home after the legislature adjourned, Representative M. J. Francis of Maricopa county who died of pneumonia shortly after the legislature started its sessions and J. F. Jennings, another Maricopa county legislator, who succumbed after an attack of influenza extending over a period of several weeks. Prior to the time he was made manager of the utilities company which is a subsidiary of the United Verde Copper company, Mr Benham was chief clerk in United Verde's Jerome offices. Besides the widow he is survived by two children, a daughter, Marion Lee, 3 years old, and another daughter, Jeannette, age about 8 months, his father, resident of Chicago, and three brothers of Tucson, reported to be enroute to Jerome. Mr. Benham was a member of the Jerome Elks lodge, No 1361.