Leaster "Brownie" Sytsma

b. 1 Sep 1943 d. 20 Jun 1967 in a car wreck. Buried in Shelton Memorial Park cemetery http://sheltonwacemetery.com/directory.html Leaster was a veteran. He was a friend of Jan (Steinberg) Dishon, who provided this information. Obit: Daily Olympian SHELTON - A funeral service will be held this Thursday morning starting at eleven o'clock in Batstone Chapel for Leaster Systma, 24, who died Tuesday in a a Shelton hospital following an automobile accident. The Reverend Alex Motes will conduct the service, which will be followed by burial in Shelton Memorial Park. Mr. Sytsma was born in Shelton January 9, 1943. He served four years in the U.S. Navy, a part of the period on the USS Hancock in the Vietnam theater. He ended his anval service last january. Mr. Sytsma is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Sytsma, 226 East J Street; three brothers, Noel, Ian, and Lewis; a sister, Mrs. Gail Edminston, and a grandmother, Mrs. Adeline Sytsma, all of Shelton. Daily Olympian, June 20, 1967: MIDNIGHT CRASH TAKES 2 LIVES - Two men died and a third was seriously injured Monday night when they were thrown through the windshield of their car as it rolled violently on Shelton Freeway, just north of the Thurston County line. Killed instantly in the single-car accident, which occurred just minutes before midnight, was the driver of the car, Morton McPherson Stephens, 23, 1632 Union Avenue East. A passenger, Leaster E. Sytsma, 24, 226 East J Street, Shelton, died of head injuries two hours later in shelton General Hostpital. The driver's brother, Stephen Stephens, 21, received numerous cuts and bruises but Tuesday forenoon was reported in satisfactory condition in St. Peter Hospital. State Trooper Robert Taffera said all three occupants were flung through the windshieldl as the car rolled over. The officer said the car had been southbound on Highwasy 101 at a high rate of speed and had failed to negotiate a curve to the left. The vehicle rolled into the median, then came to rest in the intersecton of the main freeway and the McCleary Cut-off. It was battered beyond repair.