Jack Smith

Jack Smith, owner of the soft drink and beer distributing company destroyed the Christmas Day explosion in Warsaw, Ky., died January 3, 1960 at 2:30 p.m. in St. Elizabeth's Hospital.  He was 32 years old.

He was dug from beneath 8 feet of wreckage and debris.  He walked a block, awaited the ambulance - and maintained a lucid conversation with Warsaw Life Squad men on the way to St. Elizabeth's.

He had suffered from burns from ankles to head and later suffered the loss of his right eye.  At one point he had been reported off the hospital's critical list, but then suffered a relapse.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Helen Smith; a small daughter, Amber Smith; and his mother, Mrs. Catherine Smith, all of Warsaw.

excerpted from an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, January 4, 1960