Don Warren BIRCHFIELD

July 17, 1954-December 6, 1970

In Loving Memory

Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley

*Obituary
A 16-year-old Borger youth perished in a fiery car crash about 1 a.m. Sunday, and became the City of Borger's second traffic fatality for 1970, according to police department spokesman.

Don Warren Birchfield, son of Mr. and Mrs. N.L. 'Red' Birchfield, 310 Santa Fe, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by Hutchinson County Justice of the Peace, G.H. Turpin.

Police said the early morning accident happened about 430 feet north of Gardner Street on East Wilson Street, when the youth failed to negotiate a curve and struck a utility pole.

Young Birchfield was driving a 1967 model convertible north on Union Street, which becomes Wilson Street at the Gardner Street crossing. As the roadway makes a curve to the west, Birchfield apparently lost control of the vehicle, which skidded and the rear of the car slammed into a utility post and slid some 40 feet before it came to rest on the north side of the pavement.

The vehicle burst into flames upon impact, officers said, and it was not known if the youth was killed in the crash or died as a result of the intense flames.

The city's first traffic fatality for 1970 happened Jan. 11, also on a Sunday. That accident resulted in the death of a 49-year-old White Deer man, who was fatally injured in a one-car rollover at the west edge of the city on Texas Highway 136.

Four other persons have died on rural highways in Hutchinson County this year, records show.

Don Warren Birchfield was born in Borger July 17, 1954, and lived here all his life. He was a junior student at Borger High School.

School officials described him as a "good student, who attained a 'B' average in his classwork," and said he was "well liked" by the student body.

He was employed at a local service station, and went to work immediately after school was dismissed, friends said.

Other than his parents, he is survived by a brother, Larry Birchfield, who is in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland; his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Birchfield, of Dimmitt; and his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Truelock, of Portales, N.M.

Funeral services were to be at 2 p.m. today at the Gardner Street Church of Christ, with Dr. Dale Younce, pastor of the Faith Covenant Church, officiating, and assisted by J.R. Chism, minister of the Gardner Street Church of Christ.

Interment was to be at Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, under the direction of Ed Brown & Sons Funeral Directors.

Pallbearers are Kevin Holmes, Brian Alexander, Bill Harmony, Bruce McKinney, Terry Stewart, Scott Pullen and Tim Bashor.

(Published in Borger News Herald, Borger, TX, Monday, December 7, 1970)
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Texas, Birth Index, 1903-1997
Name: Don Warren Birchfield
Date of Birth: 17 Jul 1954
Gender: Male
Birth County: Hutchinson
Father's name: Nolan Leon Birchfield
Mother's name: Margarett Madali Trueluck
Roll Number: 1954_0002

Texas, Death Index, 1903-2000
Name: Don Birchfield
Death Date: 6 Dec 1970
Death County: Hutchinson
Gender: Male

Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982
Name: Don Warren Birchfield
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 16
Birth Date: 17 Jul 1954
Birth Place: Texas
Residence: Borger, Hutchinson, Texas, USA
Death Date: 6 Dec 1970
Death Place: Union Street, Borger, Hutchinson, Texas, USA
Father: N L Birchfield
Mother: Margaret Truelock
Certificate Number: 89417

Contributed on 12/21/20 by neldapat
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Record #: 372867

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