Jack Hinson, Reenlisted Veteran, Dies Wednesday As .22 Bullet Pierces Head
A .22 rifle bullet through the head proved fatal Wednesday [24 APR 1946] to Pfc. Jack Hinson, 19-year-old soldier on re-enlistment furlough. Veteran of overseas service in Europe, Hinson was due to report to Fort Sam Houston today.
Verdict of Justice of the Peace A. F. Odell, who made the investigations, will await arrival today [28 APR 1946] of army officials from the Clovis, N. M. army air field. Indications, Odell said today, point to accidental death.
The young soldier was dead when he was found near a granary, 250 yards from the Hinson family´s farm home, five miles east of Levelland, just before noon, Wednesday. A fourteen-year-old niece and her three-year-old brother were the first to reach him, the investigator reported.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete pending army investigations and word from a navy brother.
The services will be held at the First Methodist Church here, with burial in the Ralls cemetery. The soldier was born at Ralls, and his father, a veteran of World War I, was buried there in 1939.
He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Charlie Hinson, and eight brothers and sisters. His three brothers are Charles Edwin and David Lee Hinson, Levelland, and Eugene of the U. S. Navy now in the Pacific. The five sisters are Nelda Frances, Martha Juanita, Mary Sue and Patsy Charlene, Levelland, and Mrs. Bob Peden, Albuquerque, N. M.
Private Hinson re-enlisted in the airborne infantry two months ago, and his 60-day furlough was due to be up Sunday. An extension because of a foot injury suffered by his mother was granted by Fort Sam Houston officials.
His previous service record listed 23 months of duty, 11 months of which was in the European Theater of operations. He served with artillery units of the Ninth and First armies. Hinson left the farmhouse earlier Wednesday going to the granary to shoot rats with his .22 rifle. He was accompanied by his three-year-old nephew.
The two were evidently running around the granary, Odell said, when Hinson tripped over truck sideboards. The .22 bullet went into his right temple and lodged just behind his left ear.
An ex-student of Levelland high school, Hinson was born in Ralls on June 15, 1926. The family moved to Levelland when he was eight years old.
©Levelland Paper, April 28, 1946
Obituary courtesy of Mrs. W. A. [Nelda Frances Hinson] Ellerd of Levelland.
Services Set Today For Levelland Man
LEVELLAND, April 26 (Special) — Funeral services will be held at the First Methodist church at 1 p.m. Saturday for Pfc. Jack Hinson, 19, who died of a bullet wound in the head Wednesday while on a re-enlistment furlough.The youth, veteran of 23 months service, 11 months of which were spent in the European theater, was thought to have stumbled as he was running with a .22 calib3er rifle in his hand, and the gun was accidentally discharged. He was at the home of his mother, Mrs. Charlie Hinson of Levelland, Route 4.
Rev. Sam A. Thomas, pastor, will conduct the services. Burial will be in the cemetery at Ralls, former home of the family, under direction of Plains funeal home in Levelland.
He is survived by his mother, three brothers, Charles Edwin and David Lee Hinson of Levelland and Eugene Hinson in the Navy, stationed in the Pacific theater; and five sisters, Mrs. Bob Peden of Albuquerque, N.M., and Nelda Francis, Martha Juanita, Mary Sue and Patsy Charlene Hinson, all of Levelland.
©Lubbock Avalanche Journal, April 26, 1946
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