Clinton Courier-News, November 30, 1972, Section 1, page 6:
Lake City senior Michael Ford, 17, is dead of cancer. Michael Ford, 17, a senior at Lake City High School, died of cancer at 5 a.m. Monday in University Hospital. He had been ill for the past year and a half.
He resided at 208 Watts St. and had lived in Anderson County all his life.
An all-around athlete, he played football, basketball and lettered in baseball at Lake City High. He played B-team basketball and was to have been starting guard on the football team for the 1971 season.
Ford was in the football weight training program in early fall of 1971 when he experienced trouble with one of his knees. When he went to the doctor about his knee, the cancer was discovered.
The youth finished his junior year of high school under the home-bound program.
He is survived by his father, the Rev. Arlie Ford of Lake City; his mother, Mrs. Christine Wilson of Anderson, Ind.; two sisters, Mrs. Linda Smiddy and Miss Brenda Ford, both of Lake City; one brother, Jerry Ford of Lake City; one half-sister, Mrs. Patricia McGee of Akron, O.; three half-brothers, Billy Paul Ford and Oscar Kenneth Ford, both of Clinton, and Carl Wilson of Anderson, Ind.; grandmothers, Mrs. Sophia Ford of Elk Valley and Mrs. Anna Jane Smith of Newcomb.
Services were held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at West Side Baptist Church where his father is assistant pastor. Officiating minister was the Rev. L. B. Huskey. Burial was in Pine Hill Cemetery north of Lake City.
[Transcribed by Stephanie A. Hill from a photocopy of the microfilm in the genealogy vertical files at the Lake City Library.]