8-02-1960  

City Youth Electocuted; Services Set

Services for Gene E. Davenport, 18, son of Mrs. E.E. Davenport 1414 W. Linn St. will be at 3 p.m. Thursday from the Chapel at Estel-Perrin Funeral Home in charge of the Rev. Richard Walters, pastor of Central Christian Church.  Burial will be in the Rose Hills Memorial Gardens.

The youth was electrocuted Tuesday while employed with the Iowa Highway Commission survey crew on Interstate Highway 80, near the Skunk River Bridge on Highway 6 seven miles west of Newton.  He was holding a 13-foot pole with a metal strip down one side which apparently came in contact with 69,000 volt powerline.  He was killed instantly.

Born in Marshalltown Oct. 7, 1942, he was son of the late Elmo & Ann Herbst Davenport.  He received his education in the Marshalltown Public Schools & grauated from high school last June.  Gene was active in the Hi-Y chapter 60-C, a member of the track team and attended the Central Christian Church.  He had been employed by the highway commission for the last 3 weeks and was enrolled in Iowa State University for this fall.

He was preceeded in death by his father in 1954, & his grandfather.  Surviving are his mother, 3 brothers, and a sister.  Raymond of Iowa City; Richard, stationed with the Navy at Washington, D.C.; Harper Davenport of Marshalltown, and a twin sister, Joan, both at home.  Also surviving are his paternal granmother, Mrs. Carl Davenport, of Marshalltown and the maternal grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Chris Herbst of Jefferson, Mn.