Death of Bernice Stone - 1920

Meets Tragic Death

Miss Bernice Stone killed When Auto Overturns

Utica Saturday Globe, August 1920

 

Bernice Stone

1902 - 1920

 

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Friday night's frolic at Chenango lake had a tragic ending in the violent death of one of the dancers, who, only a few moments before, had been enjoying, to the full.  the fun and the pleasure at this gay resort.

 

Accompanied by her sister, Miss Bernice Stone, aged 18, had gone to the lake in the car of their friend, Edward Waite, for an evening of enjoyment.  Miss Stone was popular among the young people and had indulged in most of the dances.  She had just completed one with Whitmore Babcock, son of Mayor Linn H. Babcock, when the young man invited her for an auto ride.

 

Seated in his high-powered Stutz, they had gone a short quarter of a mile down the South New Berlin road when the car left the traveled track, pitched down an embankment, and turning turtle, performed a complete rollover, landing right side up.  The car was a left hand drive and Mr. Babcock was thrown out, landing on his feet.  His companion, apparently, was caught under the car and her skull fractured and from the profuse bleeding, her life ebbed out within a short time.  She was picked up from between the car and the road, and carried by her escort to a Ford car which came upon the scene and conveyed her back to the hotel which she had left only a few minutes before.  Two physicians among the summer guests made a hasty examination and, discovering a hint of life, the injured girl was hurried to the Memorial Hospital, but death had intervened before her arrival there. The body was taken to the funeral parlors of Lawrence & Devine, where they were prepared for burial upon the certificate of Coroner E.W. Wilcox that death was caused by a fracture at the base of the skull received in an auto accident.

 

 

Motor Car in Which Miss Stone was Killed

As it landed in the fields after turning over completely on leaving the State road

 

Miss Stone, with her sister, Mildred, aged 22, had been employed at the Norwich Knitting Mill for nearly a year. She was a very pretty, and attractive young woman and popular among her friends.  The sisters roomed at the house of C.A. Bowers, 11 Walnut street, and the body was taken there Monday.  friends being permitted to call Monday afternoon.  Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock, conducted by Rev. H.R. MacMillan, of the First Baptist church. Burial was made in Mount Hope Cemetery [Norwich, NY].  Deceased was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Stone, who reside in Plymouth [Chenango Co., NY], but until six months ago were residents of this city, where Mr. Stone had been employed in the condenser and in the hammer factory.  To the older sister fell the sad errand of carrying to the mother the message of her daughter's tragic death.  The family were bowed down with grief.  Besides the members mentioned, a married sister of the unfortunate girl, Mrs. Preston Wescott, resides at Laurens, Otsego county, survives.

 

Investigations into the death of Miss Stone have been started by both District Attorney Ward N. Truesdell and Coroner E.W. Wilcox, and the matter will no doubt be thoroughly sifted.  If there was any criminal carelessness in the manner in which the car was being driven, or any details indicating other than a purely accidental fatality, they should be brought to the surface in due time and through the regular legal channels.

 

A strange coincidence in connection with the affair is that on August 7, 1918, two years ago almost to a day, Linn Babcock, Jr., a brother of Whitmore Babcock, was so seriously injured in a collision between a motorcycle he was riding and a Ford car on the Chenango lake road, that he died the following day.

 

Whitmore Babcock was a star halfback on the Syracuse freshman football team last fall.  He was a leader in activities on the Hill last year, taking part in all affairs of a social character. The young athlete came into the limelight a few weeks ago when at 2 o'clock in the morning he met his father, Mayor Linn H. Babcock, of  Norwich, and Postmaster F.M. Hopkins, of Binghamton, at the New York Central station at Syracuse with a brass band when he returned form the Democratic Convention.

 

 

Whitmore Babcock

 

Many Deplore Death

Tragedy of Miss Stone Arouses General Interest

 

The tragic death of Miss Bernice Stone whose life was sacrificed in the awful automobile accident near Chenango lake, sent a wave of sorrow and sadness over the community that has seldom been experienced.  The victim of this fatal affair was so young, only 18, and life seemed to hold so much for her, that her friends of whom she had so many are at a loss to understand why she should have been chosen for the sacrifice.

 

Miss Stone was young and vivacious, full of the joy of life; commonly speaking she was fond of a good time.  It was in search of pleasure that she accompanied her sister to the resort at Chenango lake upon the fatal night; that she danced among the gay throng in the pavilion, and accepted the invitation for the auto ride that ended so suddenly in her death.  In all of this, she followed a perfectly human and natural desire for relaxation and entertainment.

 

Miss Stone was simply a type of hundreds of girls and young women who come in from the farms to work in the various industries of the city and who, when their day's work is done, are left high and dry for a place of entertainment other than the public dance hall, the movies or some more or less attractive place to go to spend their leisure hours.  Separated from home and its influence, where will they go?

 

Norwich is deeply concerned, and rightly, regarding its young men and boys for whom it is making more ample provision than ever before in its Y.M.C.A.  The children will soon have a public playground provided for them. But what about the girls and the young women?  Shall they be passed by?