Blair Woman Killed In Accident

(picture) Scene of Car-Truck Accident Saturday The above picture shows a general view of the scene of the accident in which Mrs. Boniface Seamann was killed Saturday. The Seamann car is picture in the Fish Creek bed and the truck can be seen at the left of the bridge.

Funeral Held Tuesday

Car-Truck Collison Occur on Bottom Road North of Blair

Mother of Four Children Killed

Tragedy hit a Blair farm family Saturday morning when 38 year old Mrs. Boniface (Barney) Seamann was killed in a car-truck collision on the Bottom Road north of Blair.

Mrs. Seamann was riding in a car driven by her son, Thomas, 15, a sophomore at Blair High School, when the car collided, almost head-on, with a truck loaded with rock and driven by Robert E. Avery, 25, Nebraska City, who was hauling rock from the rock quarry near DeSoto.

The collision occurred on the Bottom Road north of Blair. Details are not available as there were reportedly no witnesses to the accident. The car driven by young Seamann was traveling south toward Blair and the truck north. The collision took place approximately 38 feet south of the bridge, according to Sheriff Rudy Fick.

Car Tossed Into Creek

The impact of the collision threw the car into the Fish Creek bed, on the east side of the bridge. The truck tipped over on its side, blocking the south entrance to the bridge, and throwing rocks all over the floor of the bridge. The car was demolished and the truck badly damaged.

Mr. Avery and Thomas Seamann were taken to Memorial Community Hospital in Blair for medical treatment. Avery was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon and Seamann Sunday afternoon.

Mrs. Seamann was born February 6, 1919 at Cedar Rapids, Nebraska.

Survivors include her husband, three sons, Thomas, Gerald and Richard; one daughter, Theresa, all at home. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Matya, Omaha, four brothers, Leo, Thomas and Raymond Matya, all of Omaha and Edward Matya, Marshalltown, Iowa; five sisters, Mrs. Robert Schroeder, Blair, Mrs. Waldo Stemmerman, Mrs. Donald Clifford, and Mrs. Mary Ann Rodney all of Omaha and Mrs. Angaline Hendricksen, Ft. Briggs, California.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church by Rev. father Edward O’Donnell officiating. Interment followed in Holy Cross Cemetery.

#2 Enterprise 2 Jan 1958

One Killed As Car, Truck Collide

Mrs. Boniface Seamann Killed in Crash With Rock Truck

Mrs. Boniface Seamann, 38 year-old farm wife living north of Blair, lost her life last Saturday morning when the car in which she was riding collided with a truck hauling a load of rock. The truck driver, Robert E. Avery, 26, of Nebraska City miraculously escaped serious injury.

Mrs. Seamann was enroute to Blair in a car driven by her son Thomas, 15, who is a sophomore at Blair High School. Avery was hauling rock from the DeSoto rock quarry to a river control project along the Missouri river.

They were traveling along the ‘bottom’ road which is a main-stream county road to the area north of Blair on the Missouri river bottoms. As they approached a bridge over Fish Creek, a mile north of Blair, they met the truck being driven by Avery.

The Seamann car apparently cleared the bridge for the point of impact was 38 feet south of the bridge, but in some manner the drivers became confused and the collision occurred.

Although the Seamann car was traveling south and the truck north it apparently crossed over to the left hand side of the road for the right side of the car was sheared off by the impact with the truck. Mrs. Seamann riding on the right side of the car caught the full impact of the crash and was killed outright.

Spilled Rocks Block Bridge

The collision threw the car into the Fish Creek bed on the east side of the bridge. The truck tipped over on its side, blocking the south entrance to the bridge, and throwing rocks all over the floor of the bridge. The car was demolished and the truck badly damaged.

Mr. Avery and Thomas Seamann were taken to Memorial Community Hospital in Blair for medical treatment. Avery was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon and Seamann Sunday afternoon.

Mrs. Seamann was born February 6, 1919, at Cedar Rapids, Nebraska.

Survivors include her husband, three sons, Thomas, Gerald and Richard, one daughter, Theresa, all at home. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Matya, Omaha; four brothers, Leo, Thomas and Raymond Matya, all of Omaha and Edward Matya, Marshalltown, Iowa; five sisters, Mrs. Robert Schroeder, Blair, Mrs. Waldo Stemmerman, Mrs. Donald Clifford, and Mrs. Mary Ann Rodney all of Omaha and Mrs. Angaline Hendricksen, Ft. Briggs.

Funeral services were held Tuesday at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church by Rev. Father Edward O’Donnell officiating. Interment followed in Holy Cross Cemetery.

The Bendorf Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Pall bearers were: Reed O’Hanlon, Jr., John Andreasen, Viggo Andersen, Harry Rollin, Dick Schroeder and Leo Matya.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

Find A Grave #130546512 Note: Per Blair Holy Cross Cemetery listing: born 6 Feb 1919; died 28 Dec 1957; buried Blk 9 Lt 1 Sp 3