On Saturday, June 30, 1956, nine year old Terry Tripp and his mother, Mrs Gene (Clarice) Tripp were visiting the home of his grandmother, Mrs. R. E. Tripp. While his mother sat on the front porch, Terry decided to practice his tree climbing skills.
About 8:15, “‘I heard a crack and saw a flash’, said Mrs. Tripp. ‘I knew at once what had happened.’” Terry, up in an old cedar tree, had come in contact with a power line. His mother found him hanging over a limb, bleeding from his nose. She thought he was dead until he moaned. Then, despite her fear of heights and the lowest tree branches were higher than her head, she said “I never climbed a tree in my life, but I did then….When I heard him moan, that sent me up the tree”. She grabbed him by his belt and dropped him into the arms of his aunt Lois Tripp. They flagged down a neighbor, A. B. Whitely, who drove the family to Ridgeway to see Dr. Lake Brewer. Terry regained consciousness on the trip. Dr. Brewer sent him to Noll Memorial Hospital for treatment of several burns on his body, but he did recover. (Bethany Republican-Clipper, July 4, 1956).
