Cortez Sanders killed by plane at Staniford Field

Struck by a whirling propeller of a four-motored Liberator bomber, Cortez Sanders, 60, well-known Adair citizen, who was employed as a guard at the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation modification plant was killed at 7:30 o'clock last night.

The plane was being taxied in at an angle and at slow speed when Sanders was hit, plant officials said.

Coroner J.J. Connolly, of Louisville, said Sanders was decapitated. The coroner said a guard reported Sanders walked into the blades. He gave a verdict of accidental death.

Mr. Sanders had been employed at the Vultee plant since may, 1943. He is [sic] a former Sheriff of Adair County and was cashier of the Farmers Bank at Cane Valley for a number of years.

Burial was in the [Columbia] city cemetery [on Saturday, March 18.] Mr. Sanders was born and reared in the Joppa community of Adair County, and was a son of the late Mr.and Mrs. W.F. Sanders.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Bertha Breeding Sanders; a daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Kinnaird, of Randolph, Ky.; a son, Captain William Sanders, of Taft Field, Calif.; two sisters, Miss Effie Sanders and Mrs. Patria Hammonds, of West Virginia, and three brothers, Charles Sanders of Oregon, Eldridge Sanders, of Joppa, and L.M. Sanders, of Coburg.

Captain Sanders, who was coming by plane to the funeral, was grounded in Texas on account of bad weather and did not reach Columbia until after the funeral.