Ira Blankenship Killed In Accident
Ira Blankenship of Packwood, 28 year old brother of Sheriff J. A. Blankenship, died late Wednesday at the St. Helens, hospital from a fractured skull and other injuries received early in the afternoon in an auto wreck a mile north of Packwood. The accident occurred about one o'clock when a car driven by J. F. Lidral, forman on a government road job out of Packwood, skidded on loose gravel, causing the driver to lose control, went off the grade and overturned. Immediate cause of the ill fated accident is said to have been small ridge of crushed road surfacing that had been left in the middle of the highway by a road scraper. This is said to have caused the car to skid. Mr. Lidral and Mr. Blankenship were reported to have been going after a gun to use on a hunting trip when the wreck occurred. Both men were pinned underneath the machine. Lidral was uninjured excepting for a scratch on the chin and bruises. Blankenship was extricated from under the wreckage quickly and rushed to Chehalis, arriving at a quarter past four. He died half an hour later.
Mr. Blankenship is survived by his widow, Mrs. Lucy Blankenship and five young children and three brothers, William, Irland and Huling Blankenship, all of Packwood; Sheriff J. A. Blankenship; two sisters, Mrs. John Marshall of Aberdeen and Mrs. James Fuller of Walville; and his mother, Mrs. John Riffe of Glenoma.
Graveside funeral services will be held this Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock at Silver Creek cemetery, near Randle. Burial will be directed by the Sticklin Mortuary.
Source: The Chehalis Bee-Nugget, 16 October 1931, Front page. Microfilm available at Washington State Library, 6880 Capitol Boulevard South, Tumwater, WA. 98512
Transcribed by Kathryn Lester. She has no further information on this individual.