Mrs. Ida Smith Dies Soon After An Auto Accident

SALT LAKE, May 12 — Mrs. Ida Smtlh, head of the suit and cloak department at Keith O'Brien Company and one of the best known business women of Utah, died at noon yesterday at a hospital from injuries sustained when she was struck by an automobile Friday night. Mrs. Smith had been taken to the hospital, two blocks away from the place of the accident, and had received medical attention almost immediately, but her injuries were very severe. She retained consciousness until Saturday night,

The accident occurred at 10:30 o'clock Friday night at First South and Eighth East Streets, Mrs. Smith, accompanied by her daughter, Miss Ione Smith and Miss Mae W. Hutchings, were crossing the street to board a westbound street car. The younger women were slightly ahead of Mrs. Smith, who aws holding an umbrella against the driving rain, evidently failed to see the automobile approaching between her and the waiting street car.

After the two younger women had passed safely into the street car, the automobile approaching from the west, struck Mrs. Smith and dragged her by her feet, before coming to a stop. The driver, who had not seen the women, conveyed Mrs. Smith to the hospital.

Mrs. Smith, who was 60 years old, was a daughter of Orson Smith of Logan, where she was born. For years before coming to Salt Lake she had been a New York buyer for a Logan department store.

Besides her father, Mrs. Smith leaves two daughters, Carrie and Ione; four sisters, Mrs. William Watson of Logan; Mrs. Stanley S. Stevens of Salt Lake, Mrs. John W. Reeve of Ogden and Mrs. Don C. Brown of Pocatello and one brother, Gay C. Smith of Logan.

--Ogden Standard Examiner, May 12, 1919, transcribed by Rhonda Holton
-------------
AUTO ACCIDENT NOT BLAMED TO JOHNSON

Driver of Car Alleged to,Have Been Observing Laws, Is Believed Not Guilty.

Salt Lake, May 15,— Police declare investigation of the automobile accident in which Mrs. Ida Smith was killed Friday night has indicated that the driver, Oscar W. Johnson, violated no law and was not negligent in his handling of the machine. The speed limit is twenty-five miles an hour, and the testimony of witnesses indicates that Johnson was not driving that fast.

The headlights of Johnson's machine were burning and was not crossing an intersection. Mrs. Smith was struck while crossing the road to board a streetcar. The automobile was being driven in the opposite direction of the streetcar and on the right side of tho road.

The police state that it is improbable that there will be any action in the case. The rain is said to have blinded Johnson so that he did not see Mrs. Smith and was not aware of what had happened until her daughter, Miss lone Smith cried out that her mother had been killed. The police have not quite completed the investigation and it will be resumed in the course of the next three days, upon the arrival of Miss lone Smith from Logan, where funeral services for her mother were held this week.

-Ogden Standard Examiner, May 16, 1919, transcribed by Rhonda Holton

Parents
Father: Orson Gurney SMITH
Mother: Caroline Maria CARPENTER

Marriage(s)
Spouse: Arthur Frank THOMAS Family
Marriage: 19 Nov (div) 1894