Two Young Musicians Are Killed In Wreck

Submitted by T. J. Earwood

The Commercial Appeal
Memphis, Tennessee
August 07, 1962

Two Young Musicians Are Killed In Wreck
Charles Eldred and Kenneth Earwood Were Returning To Memphis

Two young Memphis men who had dreams of attaining fame and fortune in the music world were killed instantly on a lonely road near Blytheville, Ark., when their station wagon smashed into an embankment.

Dead:

Charles Ray Eldred, 19, of 1218 Margaret Road, married and father of a 14 month old daughter. Kenneth Wayne Earwood, 20, of 1416 Stacey.

Eldred, pianist and singer, and Earwood, drummer, were returning home early Sunday after playing an engagement at the Watermelon Festival at Hornersville, Mo., with Ace Cannon's combo.

Missed a Turn:

Arkansas Highway Patrolman Gilbert Mann said the young men's station wagon missed a turn, they did not realize they were on a dead end road and crashed head-on into the embankment at an estimated speed of 65.

Mann said they were killed instantly and the station wagon, owned by the Eldred family, demolished. A passerby discovered the wreckage and called the highway patrol.

Eldred, a graduate of Whitehaven High School, had been with the combo a year, had made several records and had hopes of getting a hit, as Ace Cannon did earlier this year with "Tuff."

Earwood graduated from Kingsbury High School and had attended Memphis State University one year, where he studied dramatics. Survivors:

Eldred leaves his wife, Peggy; his daughter, Regina, 14 months; his mother, Mrs. Jewel Eldred of Memphis; two brothers, Curtis A. Eldred, Tokyo, Japan, and Wayne Eldred of Lafayette, La.; and two sisters, Mrs. Norma Toarmina and Mrs. Aileen Singleton of Memphis.

Earwood leaves his mother, Mrs. Kathryn Harrell; a brother, Ray, both of 1416 Stacey; and his grandparents, Robert Glenn of Covington and Mr. and Mrs. Dan Earwood of Covington.

Services for Eldred at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Memphis Funeral Home. Burial in Forest Hill.

Services for Earwood at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Memphis Funeral Home. Burial in Munford Cemetery at Covington, Tenn.

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