Pilot Had Four Children

The following is a newspaper article reporting on the doomed American Airlines Flight 476 which crashed August 4th, 1955 just shy of the runway at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. There were no survivors. It was printed in the Florence County News, August 5, 1955.


NEW YORK, Aug. 4 (AP) Capt. HUGH C. BARRON, pilot of the American Airlines Convair plane which crashed today at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., killing all 30 persons aboard, was the father of four children.
The 46-year-old flier, American Airlines officials here said, joined the line in 1942 after owning and operating a flying school at Macon, Ga. He was born in Laurens County, Ga., and lived at Tulsa, Okla.
Other crew members aboard the plane were:
First Officer WILLIAM G. GATES, 35, of Tulsa. Born at Tyrone, Pa., he had been with American Airlines since 1945.
Stewardess THELMA RUTH BALLARD, 21, a native of Salisbury, N. C., but now of Tulsa, was graduated only last May from the airline's school for stewardess at Chicago. She has a sister, MRS. G. O. BARGER, of 133 Jackson Homes, Charlotte, N. C. Her mother is MRS. MAUDE BALLARD of Salisbury.

Florence Morning News South Carolina 1955-08-05