Press Gazette
Hillsboro, Ohio
May 4, 1951
Billy J. Miller
Is Killed in
Indiana Crash
Billy J. Miller, 26, of Dayton, formerly of Highland County, was killed instantly in a highway accident near La Fayette, Ind., Tuesday night. He was the son of Mrs. and Mrs. Ralph Miller of New Market. The body was returned here Wednesday might.
The accident occurred about three miles southeast of La Fayette on U. S. Route 35 Tuesday about 11 P. M.
Miller was driving a tractor-trailer truck, enroute to Chicago from Dayton with a load of Frigidaires when the fatal crash occurred.
The Indiana state highway patrol reported that Miller’s outfit crashed into the rear end of a similar vehicle, apparently stopped on the highway. The patrol indicated that lights of the vehicles approaching from the opposite direction may have blinded Miller.
Dr. K. D. Newman, of La Fayette, Tippecanoe County coroner, said that death was instantaneous. The cab of Miller’s truck was smashed flat against the rear of the other vehicle. The patrol said that it required two wreckers approximately two hours to pry the trucks apart so that the body could be removed. The other truck was also loaded with cargo. Miller was alone in the truck.
He operated a trucking concern out of Dayton. The firm was incorporated under the name of Welch Trucking Company. He and his parents formed the company. He had been hauling oil for the Kendall Oil Company of Cincinnati but the Chicago trip was a special assignment.
Following the accident, the body was taken to the Hoppensteel Funeral Home in La Fayette. Buntain & Rhoads retuned the body to Hillsboro.
Miller was a veteran of World War II. He served as a paratrooper in the Pacific Theatre. He attended New Market grade school and Hillsboro High School. He formerly resided at New Market but had lived in Dayton for the last six months.
Besides his parents he is survived by his wife, of Dayton; two sisters, Mrs. Gerald Griffith of New Market and Miss Betty Miller of Dayton; his paternal grandparent, H. N. Miller of New Market and Maternal Grandparent, Mrs. Nannie Jacobs of Washington C. H.
Services will be held Sunday at 2 P.M. at the Buntain & Rhoads funeral home with Rev. Wayne Snider and Rev. Harry Arthur of officiating. Burial will be in the New Market cemetery.
Friends may call at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Miller from Saturday noon until Sunday noon.