Walter William Bumgarner

per Kingsport News dated Jan 10, 1944

Under Lost and Found

Gas Ration Books, A, B, and D

Walter Bumgarner, 724 W Sullivan

per Kingsport Times July 24, 1944

VICTIM OF WRECK WAS HOME TO MARRY

Cpl Alfred L Ramey, 19-year old Marine killed Sunday afternoon in a traffic accident on the Knoxville Highway, was to have been married within a few days, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Ramey, 888 Gate City Highway, said Monday.

    The Rameys said their son and Miss Mabel McClellan, also of the Gate City Highway, were planning on a wedding before Ramey returned to his Marine Corps base at the conclusion of the furlough he was spending here.

    Corporal Ramey, who has been in service for one year, was stationed at the Marine base, Cherry Point, N.C.

    Ramey and Walter Baumgardner, 28, of Old Kingsport, died of injuries received when the motorcycle on which hey were riding crashed into a Tennessee Coach Company bus on the Knoxville Highway just outside the corporate limits.

    Corporal Ramey died almost instantly, suffering a brok leg, internal injuries and probaly a broken neck.

    Baumgardner, driver of the motorcycle, who suffered broken legs and internal injuries, died in the emergency room of the Holston Valley Community Hospital shortly after the accident.

    State Highway Patrolman Frank Williams, who investigated the accident said the bus was driven by Bruce H. Slemp, 33, of Jefferson City, Route No. 2.

    Williams quoted Slemp as saying he had just emerged from a traffic jam on his way into Kingsport when he saw the motorcycle carrying the two boys approach in the opposite direction. He said the boys were looking back at a car behind them and he pulled over to one side of the road as far as possible when the motorcycle crashed into the left front of the bus.

    No charges were preferred against Slemp as witnesses on the bus signed statements bearing out his version of the story, Williams said.

    Baumgardner, an employe of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation, is survived by his wife, Mary Cloud baumgardner, a son, Benjamin, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Baumgardner, and three sisters, Mrs. Velva Gilbert, Mrs. Lillie Johnson and Mrs. Marie Lawson, all of Kingsport, and two brothers, Carlos Baumgardner of Bishop, Va., and Norvell Baumgardner of Red Jacket, Va.

    Double funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Lynn Garden Methodist church, and Hammond Post No. 3 will have charge of military services at the grave for Corporal Ramey.

    The Rev. T.P. Johnston will officiate at the rites for Baumgardner, and for Corporal Ramey the Rev. Troy Jones, the Rev. L.B. Meadors, and Rev. W.H. Lewis will be in charge. Burial for both men will be in the City Cemetery. 

    Friends will serve as pallbearers for the young Marine, and fellow workers at the Tennessee Eastman Corporation will be pallbearers for Baumgardner.

    The bodies will be removed late Monday afternoon to the respective homes.

    The deaths of Ramey and Baumgardner brought to six the number of persons known to have lost their lives in traffic accidents in Sullivan County in the past 10 days. .....