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- Elkhart Daily Review, October 16, 1918
Royal Bassett Sixth Victim of ‘Flu’ Here
Well Known Elkhart Young Man Succumbs to Disease
After Few Days’ Illness
Stricken in Chicago
Was Employed in Government Income Tax Department in Packing Concern
Came to Home of Parents While Ill
Royal Oliver Bassett, 28-year-old son of New York Central Engineer and Mrs. J.E. Bassett, 132 State street, died shortly after 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon following a few days illness due to Spanish influenza complicated by pleural pneumonia and heart disease.
Mr. Bassett’s passing records the sixth death here due to the epidemic. The others were Mrs. Christena Kulp, Miss Ethel Eby, Mrs. Emily Wise, George Hardy and Robert Selden Freed.
The deceased had been employed in one of the government income tax departments of Armour & Co. the Chicago packers. Last Friday afternoon he was suddenly stricken with the plague while it his work and hurried to his home in this city. The family physician, Dr. I.W. Short, was summoned and found that the patient’s temperature was 104 degrees. Although dangerously ill from the start Royal’s condition had shown improvement at times until 3 o’clock Monday morning when he lost consciousness and never rallied.
The young man was born in this city March 18, 1890. He was educated at Notre Dame university where he took a four-year course; at Detroit university where he remained for two years; and at Windsor, Ontario, college. On March 9, 1918, he enlisted and was chosen from a number of soldiers to take a special course of training at the St. Paul federal aviation school. He passed the required mental examinations with grades of from 96 to 100 percent but failed in the physical examination on account of a week heart. However, his tutors were so favorably impressed with his record that they were loathe to discharge him from service and he underwent a six weeks’ course of special treatment to correct the physical defect. However, his heart failed to respond and his teachers reluctantly gave him an honorable discharge. In a letter accompanying the discharge papers the instructors paid a high tribute to the ability of the Elkhart student whom, they asserted, had been one of the most apt I nhis class. Had he passed the physical examination, a captain’s commission awaited him and he probably would have been assigned to duties as a final inspector in one of the factories manufacturing aeroplanes for the government. Shortly after his return home he received a number of flattering offers for his service but had already promised the Chicago concern which had held a most responsible position open for him.
There perhaps was no better known Elkhart young man than Royal O. Bassett. He had the faculty of making a friend of very acquaintance and he numbered them by the hundreds both here and in Chicago. His always gentlemanly demeanor impressed those with home he came in contact.
In the death of Royal, Mr. and Mrs. Bassett are called upon to mourn the loss of the third and last of a family of three children. Their son, Warren, was killed in an explosion on the Kauffman farm near Elkhart in 1914. Their daughter, Shirley, died in 1892.
Funeral services will be held at the home at 3 o’clock Friday afternoon. Rev. A.U. Ogilvie, pastor of the Congregational church, officiating. The interment will be made in the family lot in Grace Lawn Cemetery.
Elkhart Daily Review, October 18, 1918
Funeral is Held
The funeral of Royal O. Bassett, the sixth victim of Spanish influenza here, was held this afternoon at 3 o’clock. The pallbearers were Lewis Cond, Dewey Kantz, Arthur Osborne, Harry Rutter, Frank Schmit, and Harry Kimball.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1890 - 1918 (28 years)