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SNOWFLAKE MAN BELIEVED KILLED IN PLANE CRASH

Plane Is Identified As Ship Starling Hall Was Piloting

WRECKAGE BURNED

Burned wreckage of a plan believed to be one that Starling Hall of Snowflake had attempted to fly to Plaindealing La., was found near Canyon, Tex., Tuesday night, it was re3ported by the sheriff’s office here Wednesday.

Charred remains of the pilot’s body were tentatively identified as being Hall, from description of effects, his brother Harry reported after long-distance conversation with authorities in Canyon.  The wrecked plane was positively identified as being that of Burton Hatch of Taylor from whom Hall borrowed the ship to fly to Louisiana to bring his wife and two sons home to Snowflake. 

Norman Smith of Snowflake and Hatch flew to the scene of the wreck Wednesday to try to positively identify the body and to return the remains to Snowflake for funeral services, Harry reported.

Just two weeks ago he had flow his family, his wife Helen and their two children, Scott, three years old, and Billy, one, to Louisiana to visit his wife’s mother Mrs. John Scott, it was learned from his brother.

Communication with Mrs. Hall in Plaindealing soon verified the fact that Starling had never arrived, and it is assumed that he crashed the evening of May 8 since he left Snowflake that afternoon intending to stop over for the night in Amarillo which is 20 miles north of where the plane was located, Harry said.

Starling was born in Snowflake in March 1920 and has lived in this county since except for four years that he served with the U.S. Marines, being discharged May 7, 1946 as a staff sergeant.  He was stationed overseas at Guadalcanal, Okinawa, and after VJ day served in Japan until his discharge.

He met his wife while in the service and married her in San Diego in 1943.

Besides his wife and children, he is survived by his brother, Harry, and his mother, Mrs. Emma Hall, both of Snowflake.  His father passed away in 1926.