Tragic Tractor accident Takes Life Of 12-year Old Etna Farm Youth

A tragic accident snuffed out the life of 12-year old DeLoyd Coates of Etna Thursday morning of last week when he was thrown from a caterpillar tractor and killed.
County Coroner A.A. DePauw termed the death accidental after an investigation was made Wyoming Highway Patrolmen J.E,. Brunton of Afton and a deputy sheriff form Kemmerer assisted Mr DePauw with the investigation.
DeLoyd was the son of Mr and Mrs Lloyd Coates. Mr Coates said the boy was riding on the tractor being driven by him when a log rolled down a hillside and under the tractor's track causing him to lose control of the vehicle. Mr Coates and his son were thrown from the tractor and DePauw said the youth apparently hit his head on part of the vehicle. He died instantly of a basal skull fracture.
He was born in Afton April 17, 1947 to Lloyd and Olga Wolfley Coates. He lived in Etna all his life and just been promoted form the fifth to the sixth grade at the Metcalf School. He had just finished his Primary work requirements in the church and was to have been ordained a deacon the following Sunday.
Members of his family and his friends will remember him as a kind and friendly lad, very dependable and ambitious. He loved his home life. His main interests were to work on tractors and other farm equipment, young as he was.
He is survived by his parents and the following brothers and sisters, all of Etna: ValGene, DeRell, Ernold, Samuel Coates, Mrs Elworth (Fayone) Erickson, Arlinda and Kayleen Coates.
Funeral services were conducted Sunday, May 31 at 2 p.m. in the Etna Ward Chapel, with Bp Clyde E. Wolfley, conducting. Burial was in the Thayne Cemetery.
Out of the valley visitors who attended the services included the following: Mrs S.E. Coates (grandmother) Smithfield, Utah; Mr and Mrs Reid Johnson, Mr and Mrs Elmer Rodgers, Mr and Mrs Verlin Rodgers, Mr and Mrs Calvin Cole, Mr Ed Elsworth and daughter, Mr and Mrs Ersol Berchtold, Mr and Mrs Larrin Wolfley, Mr and Mrs Carl Ransom, Lawrence Wolfley and Mr and Mrs Bryan Weber.

Coates, DeLoyd (b 31 May 1959)Star Valley Independent