Individual Details
Dr. Louis Tatom III
(31 Aug 1927 - 16 Dec 1961)
He married Jewell Sidney Ford on 6 Jun 1953 in Crenshaw County, AL.
His death was reported in the Dallas Morning News, dated 20 Dec 1961:
Accident Fatally Injures Two Methodist Missionaries
NEW YORK - (AP) - Two Methodist missionaries to Bolivia were fatally injured in an automobile accident involving a 1,500-foot plunge in the Andes Mountains, the Methodist Board of Missions here reported Tuesday.
The victims were the Rev. Murray S. Dickson, 46, of Hillsboro, Texas, and Dr. Louis Tatom, III, 34, a medical missionary of Gainesville, Fla.
The missions board reported Monday that the Rev. Mr. Dickson had been found dead in his car, presumably from the effect of the Andean altitude on a bronchial condition from which he suffered. But the board said Tuesday that information was erroneous and gave this account, based on new information, of the double deaths Saturday.
The two missionaries were driving on a narrow mountain roadway northeast of La Paz, the Bolivian capital. Their car was forced from the road by a truck and dropped down a 1,500 foot cliff to a railroad embankment.
Tatom apparently was killed instantly. Dickson crawled from the car and climbed back to the roadway. He was found there and placed on a train for La Paz, but died during the trip.
Mr. Dickson, a missionary to Bolivia since 1943, was executive secretary for all Methodist work in that nation. He was a graduate of Southern Methodist University and had post-graduate training at the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford, Conn., at Columbia University and at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Tatom, a native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, had been in Bolivia since last year.
His death was reported in the Dallas Morning News, dated 20 Dec 1961:
Accident Fatally Injures Two Methodist Missionaries
NEW YORK - (AP) - Two Methodist missionaries to Bolivia were fatally injured in an automobile accident involving a 1,500-foot plunge in the Andes Mountains, the Methodist Board of Missions here reported Tuesday.
The victims were the Rev. Murray S. Dickson, 46, of Hillsboro, Texas, and Dr. Louis Tatom, III, 34, a medical missionary of Gainesville, Fla.
The missions board reported Monday that the Rev. Mr. Dickson had been found dead in his car, presumably from the effect of the Andean altitude on a bronchial condition from which he suffered. But the board said Tuesday that information was erroneous and gave this account, based on new information, of the double deaths Saturday.
The two missionaries were driving on a narrow mountain roadway northeast of La Paz, the Bolivian capital. Their car was forced from the road by a truck and dropped down a 1,500 foot cliff to a railroad embankment.
Tatom apparently was killed instantly. Dickson crawled from the car and climbed back to the roadway. He was found there and placed on a train for La Paz, but died during the trip.
Mr. Dickson, a missionary to Bolivia since 1943, was executive secretary for all Methodist work in that nation. He was a graduate of Southern Methodist University and had post-graduate training at the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford, Conn., at Columbia University and at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Tatom, a native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, had been in Bolivia since last year.
Events
| Birth | 31 Aug 1927 | District of Columbia | |||
| Marriage | 6 Jun 1953 | Crenshaw County, Alabama - Jewell Sidney Ford | |||
| Death | 16 Dec 1961 | La Paz, Bolivia |  | ||
| Burial | Evergreen Cemetery, Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida | |
Families
| Spouse | Jewell Sidney Ford (1929 - 2018) |
| Child | Nancy Elaine Tatom (1958 - ) |
| Child | Living |
| Father | Col. Louis Jeter Tatom (1899 - 1968) |
| Mother | Anne Isabel McKinstry (1899 - 1988) |
| Sibling | William McKinstry Tatom (1925 - 2002) |
Endnotes
1. "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9SP-HPN : 20 May 2014), Louis Tatom, Dec 1961; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing)..
2. Find A Grave Memorial 27149462.