5 Fire Victims Being Returned Here for Burial -- Bodies of a young couple from Alabama and their three small children who perished in a fire at Norfolk, Va., Wednesday that spread from an exploding oil stove, will be sent here for burial. A spokesman for the Spigener-Brown Service Funeral Home said they will arrive here tomorrow night. Arrangements for the funerals will be announced.
The victims were Houston C. Parker, 23; his wife, Nellie, 21; their two sons, Carvis, 4, and Rickie, 2, and their daughter Barbara Ruth, 1.
Parker was the son of Houston Parker and Mrs. A. V. Hartley of Green Pond, Ala. Mrs. Parker was a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., the daughter of Mrs. Birdie Channel Sailors and the late John Daniel Banks.
The Parker family was asleep in a front bedroom of their first-floor apartment when the fire broke out in an adjoining living room.
Eight other occupants of the 2 ½ story frame house escaped.
Firemen who answered an alarm shortly before 7 a.m. found Parker’s body in the doorway between the bedroom and living room and Mrs. Parker’s body near the door between the bedroom and the kitchen. One child was in a crib and two were on a cot.
Carvis was alive when carried from the apartment but died in a hospital several hours later.
Asleep in a rear bedroom were Parker’s brother, James Parker, 18, and Mrs. Parker’s brother, Billy Banks, 17.
James Parker said “We heard them screaming. We went to the door that goes to the kitchen. It was locked. I tried to break it in. I couldn’t. Then we both gave a shove and it came open. There was just too much smoke and heat. We couldn’t get in.”
Ref: The Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 31, 1959, p. 1
The victims were Houston C. Parker, 23; his wife, Nellie, 21; their two sons, Carvis, 4, and Rickie, 2, and their daughter Barbara Ruth, 1.
Parker was the son of Houston Parker and Mrs. A. V. Hartley of Green Pond, Ala. Mrs. Parker was a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., the daughter of Mrs. Birdie Channel Sailors and the late John Daniel Banks.
The Parker family was asleep in a front bedroom of their first-floor apartment when the fire broke out in an adjoining living room.
Eight other occupants of the 2 ½ story frame house escaped.
Firemen who answered an alarm shortly before 7 a.m. found Parker’s body in the doorway between the bedroom and living room and Mrs. Parker’s body near the door between the bedroom and the kitchen. One child was in a crib and two were on a cot.
Carvis was alive when carried from the apartment but died in a hospital several hours later.
Asleep in a rear bedroom were Parker’s brother, James Parker, 18, and Mrs. Parker’s brother, Billy Banks, 17.
James Parker said “We heard them screaming. We went to the door that goes to the kitchen. It was locked. I tried to break it in. I couldn’t. Then we both gave a shove and it came open. There was just too much smoke and heat. We couldn’t get in.”
Ref: The Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 31, 1959, p. 1
5 Fire Victims Being Returned Here for Burial -- Bodies of a young couple from Alabama and their three small children who perished in a fire at Norfolk, Va., Wednesday that spread from an exploding oil stove, will be sent here for burial. A spokesman for the Spigener-Brown Service Funeral Home said they will arrive here tomorrow night. Arrangements for the funerals will be announced.
The victims were Houston C. Parker, 23; his wife, Nellie, 21; their two sons, Carvis, 4, and Rickie, 2, and their daughter Barbara Ruth, 1.
Parker was the son of Houston Parker and Mrs. A. V. Hartley of Green Pond, Ala. Mrs. Parker was a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., the daughter of Mrs. Birdie Channel Sailors and the late John Daniel Banks.
The Parker family was asleep in a front bedroom of their first-floor apartment when the fire broke out in an adjoining living room.
Eight other occupants of the 2 ½ story frame house escaped.
Firemen who answered an alarm shortly before 7 a.m. found Parker’s body in the doorway between the bedroom and living room and Mrs. Parker’s body near the door between the bedroom and the kitchen. One child was in a crib and two were on a cot.
Carvis was alive when carried from the apartment but died in a hospital several hours later.
Asleep in a rear bedroom were Parker’s brother, James Parker, 18, and Mrs. Parker’s brother, Billy Banks, 17.
James Parker said “We heard them screaming. We went to the door that goes to the kitchen. It was locked. I tried to break it in. I couldn’t. Then we both gave a shove and it came open. There was just too much smoke and heat. We couldn’t get in.”
Ref: The Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 31, 1959, p. 1
The victims were Houston C. Parker, 23; his wife, Nellie, 21; their two sons, Carvis, 4, and Rickie, 2, and their daughter Barbara Ruth, 1.
Parker was the son of Houston Parker and Mrs. A. V. Hartley of Green Pond, Ala. Mrs. Parker was a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., the daughter of Mrs. Birdie Channel Sailors and the late John Daniel Banks.
The Parker family was asleep in a front bedroom of their first-floor apartment when the fire broke out in an adjoining living room.
Eight other occupants of the 2 ½ story frame house escaped.
Firemen who answered an alarm shortly before 7 a.m. found Parker’s body in the doorway between the bedroom and living room and Mrs. Parker’s body near the door between the bedroom and the kitchen. One child was in a crib and two were on a cot.
Carvis was alive when carried from the apartment but died in a hospital several hours later.
Asleep in a rear bedroom were Parker’s brother, James Parker, 18, and Mrs. Parker’s brother, Billy Banks, 17.
James Parker said “We heard them screaming. We went to the door that goes to the kitchen. It was locked. I tried to break it in. I couldn’t. Then we both gave a shove and it came open. There was just too much smoke and heat. We couldn’t get in.”
Ref: The Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 31, 1959, p. 1
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