“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• A PLANE CRASH DURING LOW-VISIBILITY WEATHER MONDAY NIGHT TOOK THE LIFE OF JACK WATSON, pilot, and seriously injured his wife, Gwen, daughter of Mrs. Edward Schafer of Walnut Grove and related to other Tracy and Walnut Grove residents.
Business partners of the Watson’s, Mr. and Mrs, Wilbur Thomsen, all of Round Lake, were also seriously injured in the crash that occurred shortly after midnight and only about three-quarter of a mile from their destination, the Worthington airport.
Mrs. Watson is a sister of Calvin Schafer of Walnut Grove, and a niece of Mrs. Stella McCormick and Bill Schafer, both of this city. Mrs. Watson and the Thomsen’s are in the Worthington hospital, all listed in serious condition.
The plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, was on an instrument approach to the airport runway. The two couples were returning from a trip to Prairie du Chien, Wis, The flight plan listed Fairmont as the alternate airport to Worthington if weather conditions were too bad. There was light rain and fog at Worthington and visibility was 1 1/2 miles with ceiling of 500-600 feet, the Worthington Globe reported.
Lorence Voehl, a farmer discovered the wrecked plane about daybreak, over six hours after the crash into a field on the Loren Bauman farm about a mile from the north end of the airport runway.
A search was begun shortly after the suspected crash and continued by authorities throughout the night — ending when the farmer spotted the wreckage and called the sheriff’s office.
The Worthington Globe reported that Watson died a short time before the plane was found. Mrs. Watson and the Thomsens were found alive in the plane.
• Last week’s answer: The Immaculate Heart of Mary School building in Currie was sold in the summer of 1986.
