WOMAN IS KILLED IN GRADE CRASH AT MILLERSBURG
Former Music Teacher in City Is Victim; Husband Escapes
Mrs. James Zerbe, 32, Dalmatia, former music tutor in this city [Harrisburg] and supervisor of music in the Millersburg schools for six years, was killed almost instantly when she became frightened while driving an automobile across a railroad crossing north of Millersburg.
Her husband, James Zerbe, a salesman for the L. H. Yeager Company, of Allentown, escaped with minor injuries when he was tossed to the side of the tracks while trying to assist his wife in getting free of the automobile as a south-bound train crashed into it.
Zerbe was brought to the Harrisburg Hospital, where he received treatment for lacerations of the hand and shock. He was discharged from the hospital last evening.
Dr. D. E. Hottenstein, of Millersburg, examined the body for Coroner Howard E. Milliken. He said that Mrs. Zerbe died from shock and hemorrhage. She suffered a fractured scull of the left arm and a severed right leg.
On Shopping Tour
The accident occurred while the couple were on their way home from a shopping tour, on which Mrs. Zerbe had purchased clothes in preparation for her departure to the University of New York to study music. Mrs. Zerbe was driving, and waited for a north-bound freight train to pass the crossing, and then pulled on the track as a south-bound passenger train approached.
Mrs. Zerbe saw the train approaching and screamed, but was overcome by fright, Zerbe told hospital attendants.
He attempted to get his wife from the auto as the engine crashed into the machine throwing him to the side of the roadbed and hurling Mrs. Zerbe fifty feet along the tracks.
Her body was taken to the undertaking establishment of W. J. Minnier, of Millersburg.
Pupils Win Cup
Mrs. Zerbe was a graduate of Dalmatia High School, Bloomsburg and West Chester Normal Schools, and Beachwood School of Music. Her pupils in the Millersburg schools won the high school cup for music at the 1930 Dauphin County field meet, held at the William Penn High School
Planned to Lead Orchestra
The cup was presented at a banquet of the Alumni Association last night. Mrs. Zerbe was to have led the orchestra in a musical program.
She is survived by her husband, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Deppen, Dalmatia, and one sister, Mrs. Guy Bucher, of Elmira, New York.
Funeral services will be held Monday morning at 10:30 o’clock at the home of her parents. The Rev. Walter Wagner, of the Dalmatia Lutheran Church, will officiate, assisted by the Rev. Roy Freeman. Burial will be in the Dalmatia Cemetery. The body may be viewed at the Minier Funeral Parlors this evening and at the home of her parents, Sunday evening.
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Note: Mrs. Zerbe was the former Thelma Deppen.
News article from the Harrisburg Telegraph, 21 June 1930, via Newspapers.com.
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