Sixty Years Ago Today: Death at the Post Office

February 11, 1960, fell on a Thursday. Downtown Florence was bustling with families making last minute purchases for the parties that would end the school week on Friday. Others were preparing for a fun Valentine's Day weekend, but it was not to be for one Florence family.

Capt. James E. Isley, a member of the Florence Fire Department, had picked up his son Bobby Wayne from school that afternoon. Accompanying Bobby were two of his classmates from a fourth grade class at Appleby Elementary School on Hermitage Drive. 

The boys had asked to stop at the Florence Post Office on Seminary Street. A Navy recruiting office was located on the third floor of the local landmark, and boys often visited to receive complimentary posters and bookmarks. 

While Capt. Isley waited outside the post office for the youths, the three boys decided to leave the recruiting office in a manner that until that day had failed to draw public attention. Sliding down the bannisters from the third to the first floor had seemed like a fun way to end the recruiting office visit, but it proved fatal to Bobby Wayne Isley.

Only one of Bobby's companions saw the fall. The youth stated that Bobby had leaned over the bannister, lost his balance, and fell two floors, striking his head on a first floor radiator before hitting the marble floor. 

An ambulance rushed the North Florence boy to Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, where physicians decided to transfer him to Nashville. A second ambulance transported Bobby to Vanderbilt Hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival at 6:00 p.m.

An only child, the young Boy Scout was survived by his father James and mother, Velma R. Isley. Mrs. Isley died a short four years later. Bobby Wayne Isley, born on Christmas Day ten years before his death, is buried in Tri-Cities Memorial Gardens in the Garden of the Christus.

Thanks to J.S. for this historical account.