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Submitted: 5/9/22 • Approved: 5/9/22 • Last Updated: 5/12/22 • R512134-G0-S3
April 26, 1934-July 5, 1948
Our Precious Darling
At Rest
*Photo, courtesy of Mary (Coggin) Russell
*Obituary
Drowning Victim Buried Wednesday
Funeral services for David Melton Byrd, 14-year-old drowning victim, were held here Wednesday afternoon, July 7, conducted by Rev. R.H. Cagle, pastor of the First Baptist Church. He was assisted by Rev. H.V. Fields of the Avenue Baptist Church.
Young Byrd was drowned here Monday afternoon shortly after 2 o'clock, when he and a companion, Charles Ray Buse, went swimming in the "Old Dairy" Swimming hole, three miles east of town. They rode bicycles to the location.
Buse said Byrd jumped into the water first and failed to come back up. Water into which Byrd plunged was reported six to eight feet deep, due to a "step-off" in the bank.
When Byrd failed to reappear, Buse ran to the highway and flagged down a car occupied by two men; one remained on the scene and the other turned the alarm in to Hereford police.
Bud Bradly, Jack Simmons and Wilbur Bell were rushed to the scene and dived for the body so long before locating it that they had difficulty in bringing it to the bank. Bradly found the body, Simmons pulled it to the top, and the two worked together in bringing it in.
Artificial respiration was used in an attempt to revive the youth, but the length of time was too great for efforts to be effective.
The boy's father, Frank Byrd, was out of town in Cuthand, Red River County. The boy's grandfather is ill there.
Young Bird [sic] was born in Red River County.
Survivors include the father and mother; two brother [sic], E.F., of Hereford, and J.O. of Borger; five sisters, all of Herefore [sic], Mrs. Frank West, Mrs. C.M. Leffel, Mrs. Orvis Oneal, Mrs. Louts Phillips and Margaret Odella Byrd.
The family came to Hereford from Littlefield.
(Published in The Hereford Brand, Forty-eighth Year-Number 28, Hereford, Deaf Smith County, Texas, Thursday, July 8, 1948, Page 1,8)
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Texas, U.S., Birth Index, 1903-1997
Name: David Melton Byrd
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 26 Apr 1934
Birth Place: Red River, Texas, USA
Father: Frank Byrd
Mother: Creasie Cavender
Roll number: 1934_0001
Texas, U.S., Death Index, 1903-2000
Name: David Melton Byrd
Death Date: 5 Jul 1948
Death County: Deaf Smith
Certificate: 84716
Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982
Name: David Melton Byrd
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 14
Birth Date: 26 Apr 1934
Birth Place: Red River, Texas
Residence: Hereford, Deaf Smith, Texas, USA
Death Date: 5 Jul 1948
Death Place: Hereford, Deaf Smith, Texas, USA
Father: Frank Byrd
Mother: Crecy Cavnar
Contributed on 5/9/22 by neldapat
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Record #: 512134