OTIS LAFFERTY
1921-1963
Three are dead and two injured in a truck-car collision that
occurred about 11:20 Saturday morning on the new U. S. 28 south of
Paintsville. Dead are Otis Lafferty, 42 of the Daniels Creek
section of the county and Mrs. Ruby L. Kirk, 28, and her mother
Mrs. Ninn Phipps, 75 of Prestonsburg.
Injured were Charles Kirk., Jr., husband of Ruby Kirk, and their
nine-year-old son, James. The accident took place when Lafferty,
fleeing from Johnson County Sheriff's deputies crashed his half-
ton, 1954 Chevrolet pick-up truck head on with the oncoming car in
which the other four were passengers. The Kirk automobile, a 1958
Ford was traveling in the direction of Paintsville and the
collision occurred on the top of Tan Vat Hill where the highway
converges from a three lane into a two lane thoroughfare. No road
marker indicates the change to a two lane road at this point. Mrs.
Phipps and Lafferty were killed outright, and Mrs. Kirk died at
3:15 p.m., a few hours following the accident. She was a patient in
the New Hospital in Stafford Addition.
The Kirk family were former residents of East Point and were well
known in the vicinity. Both Kirk and the son were removed to
Ashland Monday where Kirk was admitted to King's Daughters'
Hospital. James was able to go to the home of relatives in Ashland.
State Trooper W. R. Williamson reported that Mrs. Phipps was
sitting in the right rear seat while Mrs. Kirk sat in the right
front seat. The Sheriff's deputies, Raymond Blair and W. T.
Williams, were in pursuit of Lafferty, with sirens screaming. Kirk
said he believed he had stopped his car when he saw the oncoming
truck. Sheriff Ray Preston said his deputies suspected Lafferty of
durnken driving.
Mrs. Phipps body was removed from the Paintsville Clinic to the
Preston Funeral Home, and later to a Whitesburg funeral home. Mrs.
Kirk's body was taken from the New Hospital to the John Steen
Funeral Home in Ashland.
Lafferty, the father of 10, was born March 2, 1921, a son of Homer
and Lydia Collins Lafferty. He had been a resident of Daniels Creek
for 17 years. He was married August 3, 1942 in Martin County to
Rosa Crum who survives. Other survivors are seven sons, Chester,
Homer, Billy, Kenneth Ray, Otis, Jr., Dewey Lee and Garr Lafferty,
all at home, and three daughters, Lorrean, Dearleen and Karen, all
PAINTSVILLE HERALD
WEDNESDAY
APRIL 3 1963
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