Rawlings, John C.

Passed: 1935-04-28

Age: 56

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1935-05-03

Information: John Rawlings, formerly of Kenna, died Sunday afternoon while enroute to a Charleston hospital from injuries received in a fight at Nitro and his alleged assailant is being held in the Kanawha Couty jail and will be charged with manslaughter.  Rawlings was 56 years old.  According to the story told to Kanawha County officers, Rawlings and Charles Rigney, 30 years old, and three women had been drinking beer at an inn near Nitro Sunday afternoon and when the bill of the beer was presented by the proprietor of the establishment, the two men quarreled and finally fought.  Rigney is alleged to have kicked Rawlings on the head during the fight and Coronor Work of Kanawha County, who investigated the case, said that the man died of a broken neck.  The women in the party told the officers that the men fought over the payment of the bill for the beer and that when it was seen that Rawlings was badly hurt, they placed him in Rigney's automobile and started to the hospital with him.  He died before they reached the hospital and Rigney left the automobile, but was arrested later in the afternoon at his home in Charleston.  Instead of taking the body to the hospital it was taken to a funeral home.       Rawlings is survived by his widow, Mrs. Maggie Rawlings; five sons, Ronald, Donald, Woodrow, Ira and John Rawlings, Jr., of Charleston; four daughters, Mrs. Mary Parsons, Naomi Rawlings, Ima Rawlings, and May Rawlings, all of Charleston; his mother, Mrs. Louise Rawlings, of Detroit Michigan; three brothers, Herbert and Edgar Rawlings of Fairplain, and Clarence Rawlings of Montgomery; two sisters, May and Bell Rawlings, of Detroit, Michigan.  Rawlings was reared on Grasslick and lived in that vicinity until a few years ago when the family moved to Charleston.  His body was brought back there for burial Monday.   [from the Betty Kessel McIntyre obit collection]