Time Capsule

As reported 50 years ago in the pages of The Columbia News, Thursday, Jan. 5, 1956:

First traffic fatality

A Grovetown storekeeper was Georgia's first traffic fatality in 1956.

Gordon I. Morris, 50, was killed when the car in which he was a passenger crashed into another at the intersection of Milledgeville Road and Gordon Highway at about 12:15 a.m. Sunday.

Four other persons were injured in the wreck.

Deputy Sheriffs R.W. Tomlin and Mars C. Dukes said Morris' wife, Thelma Lewis Morris, 40, was driving the family car. She was in critical condition at University Hospital. She collided with a car that had stopped to give her the right-of-way, the deputies said. They identified the other driver as Earl J. Powell, 28, of Augusta.

Lavern Guth, 22, of Grovetown, also a passenger in the Morris vehicle, was less seriously injured, as were the two occupants of the Powell car - the driver and his wife, Ann Powell, 24.

Mr. Morris was a brother of Columbia County Sheriff Herman Morris.