2 Miles east & 2 Miles south of Burrton /
Burrton Crash Kills Three
Three Harvey Countians died in a two-car collision southeast of here Saturday morning. Dead were Mrs. Joe Steffen, 61, Michael Shive, seven months old, and John Schrag, 10, RFD 2, Halstead. Two others, Mrs. Delbert Shive, 17, Burrton, mother of the infant, and Willard Ray Schrag, Jr., 17, drivers of the two cars, were reported in fair condition at Halstead Hospital late Saturday night. State Trooper Wayne Coddington, who investigated the accident, said Mrs. Shrive suffered a fractured leg and ribs. The accident occurred at 9:30 a.m. Saturday two miles east and two miles south of Burrton. Mrs. Shive, her mother and baby son were returning from Halstead where they had delivered flowers to a Church, Coddington reported. The Schrag boys were enroute to a stock sale at Halstead. Their father, Willard 
Schrag Sr., told the trooper he left by a different route for Newton just after the boyx departed. The two cars collided at the open intersection of Harvey County Road 576. Coddington said the north-bound Schrag car was approaching a stop sign, but he didn’t know if it had stopped. The impact of the west-bound Shive auto and the Schrag car threw both vehicles into the north-west ditch. At least four of the five persons were thrown from the vehicles, Coddington said. Both cars were demolished. The baby and John Schrag died at the hospital. It was not known if Mrs. Steffen was killed instantly, the trooper said. (The Burrton Graphic, Burrton Kansas. May 31, 1961).
John Leroy Schrag, 10, died at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Halstead Hospital after being injured in an auto crash Saturday morning. He was born May 2, 1951, at Newton. Survivors are the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Willard N. Schrag; two brothers, Willard Ray and Steven Joe, and two sisters, Rita Ann and Joyce Elaine, all of the home; his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Hackenbert, Hesston, and Mrs. Paul Schrag, Burrton. Funeral will be 3 p.m. Monday at the Burrton Mennonite Church, Rev. Gideon Yoder, Hesston, officiating, with burial in the Burrton Cemetery. (Burrton Funeral Home, Burrton Kansas. May 27, 1961).
