From microfilm at John H. Wooters Crockett Public Library

The Houston County Courier, Sunday, December 6, 1987:

KILLED PILOT’S RELATIVES VISIT GRAVESITE IN COUNTY

Fifty years ago, on August 30, 1937, Guy W. Edgerton of North Carolina, a cadet in the US Army, was among 13 pilots flying from Shreveport, Louisiana to their home field at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio on a training mission.

Edgerton and his fellow pilots ran into a big storm not long into the trip; twelve of the pilots safely landed at various airstrips, such as Waco and Houston, but not Edgerton. Only 24 years old, Edgerton’s body and wrecked plane were found in a wooded area seven miles southwest of Grapeland.

Though the years have gone by, the memory of those close to Edgerton have not faded. On Monday, Edgerton’s niece, Jerry Booth, and Booth’s daughter, Patty Beynon, returned to the site where Edgerton’s plane went down.

Booth, a retired secretary now living in Sunnyvale, California, was 11 years old and living back home in Kenley, North Carolina, when Edgerton died. Booth said that she and Edgerton were more like brother and sister than niece and nephew when he left to go in the Army.

Former Texas Power and Light employee BoBo Jaska, who knows the location of the crash site, and Houston County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Stew Darsey showed the visitors to the site, which is ½ mile east of Houston County Lake just south of Pipeline Road.

The visitors were shown the monument on the crash site – the stone was made locally and the plaque on the monument was brought by Edgerton’s parents when they came to the site after the crash. The monument is kept up by Cleo Hamilton, who lives close by.

Darsey also showed Booth and Beynon the sights in Houston County before bidding them farewell Monday afternoon.

[Two large photos of the monument accompany the article.]