Hugh Hyde Yancey

Widely Known Former S.L. Residents Die in Plane Crash Off Alaska Coast

A widely known former Salt Lake man and wife were killed in a plane crash while on a U.S. State department mission to entertain troops, family members were notified Sunday.

Killed were Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Hyde Yancey, Los Angeles, parents of Mrs. Kenneth J. Elinor Marien Nielson, Salt Lake City.

North of Nome The couple was aboard an Air Fever C123 transport which crashed Saturday at Cape Lisburne, site of a small Air Force aircraft and warning radar station 300 miles north of Nome deep in the Arctic.

Seven servicemen, including the crew, also died in the crash.

The C123 was making a supply run from Nome to the station which lies 200 miles above the Arctic Circle at the northwest tip of Alaska.

Bad Weather The plane plunged into 24 to 36 feet of water while making a landing approach.

A Coast Guard cutter and other Air Force planes were hampered by bad weather in attempts to reach the crash site late Sunday, according to wire service reports.

The copilot of the C123 was identified by relatives in Ogden as Air Force Capt. Richard Smith. Holbrook, Idaho.

Frogmen are to enter the crash area in a search for bodies of the victims as soon as weather permits, military officials said.

Bad weather was the apparent cause of the crash, according to the Alaska Air Command.

Mr. Yancey was a chemist, and the family resided in Salt Lake City for several years on Yale Avenue. The couple's two daughters were educated in Salt Lake City, and Mr. and Mrs. Yancey made frequent return visits.

After selling his business, Foam-O Chemical Co., Los Angeles, five years ago, Mr. Yancey decided to travel to Alaska "for some fishing."

He resumed painting, a lifelong hobby, and his work became so popular persons reportedly used to carry away his canvases while they still were wet.

Hundreds of Shows Mr. Yancey kept up a monologue of jokes and cracker-barrel philosophy, much in the manor of the late Will Rogers, while he painted.

The painting - monologue soon became a popular act, and State Department officials persuaded Mr. Yancey to put on shows for servicemen. The act was called "Paint Your Blues Away."

With Mrs. Yancey as his assistant, he had given hundreds of shows for servicemen throughout the world.