A Tribute
...to a Winning Team!
So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. |
This newspaper article is from "The Valley News" and the "Valley Green Sheet."
| Crash Kills 3 Canoga Park Youths; Fourth Badly Hurt |
| Three Canoga Park Youths are dead and another lay critically injured in Salinas General Hospital yesterday Following a collision while they were driving south on U.S. Route 101 below Greenfield. |
| Dead are Kathy Johnson 18, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Lavern Johnson of 7911 Oakdale Ave.; Michael Quatro 17,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Quatro of 8442 Lurline Ave.; and Frederick John
Wallis 18, son of the Rev. James and Mrs. Ann Wallis of 7046 Fullbright
Ave.
Hospitalized with a concussion and head injuries after having his spleen removed was David Wallis 20, also of the Fullbright Ave. address. They were representing the First Baptist Church of Canoga Park. According to California Highway Patrol reports, the car in which the four were riding for undetermined reasons crossed the center divider and struck a northbound vehicle. The vehicle of the young people spun around. Another vehicle then reportedly ran into the remains. |
The unidentified driver of the northbound
vehicle suffered major injuries and the occupants of the second southbound
vehicle minor injuries, a CHP spokesman told The News. Philip Haw a deacon at the church said the conference was to end yesterday morning but the youths apparently decided to leave Friday night because Miss Johnson was scheduled to work yesterday. Miss Johnson, a recent graduate of Grover Cleveland High School where she was head cheerleader, was employed as a waitress at Norm's Restaurant in Westwood. She was planning to attend Pierce Coolege next term. |
Surviving besides her parents, are grandparents, Mrs. Joseph Haggai of Pacific Palisades,
are Mr. and Mrs. Harry Johnson of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Frederick Wallis, student body athletic commissioner before his recent graduation from Canoga Park High School, had been the recent recipient of a $1000 a year scholarship which he was going to use at Pierce College this semester. Surviving besides his parents, presently serving as missionaries in Brazil. are a sister Ethel 21, of the Fullbright Ave. residence; and two brothers, James Jr. 16 and Robert 8, both of whom are with their parents in South America. Quatro, a recent graduate of Chatsworth High School, had also planned to enroll at Pierce College. He was working this summer as an orderly... |
Absent from the body Present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8
What the Paper didn't Report
Kathi Johnson, Mike Quatro, John, and Dave Wallis were returning to Canoga Park from Camp Hammer, a missionary youth camp in the Bay Area, when the accident occurred. At the suggestion of Mike's Dad, the four had set up a buddy system of two awake, two asleep while driving. Dave, the injured survivor, says that all four were wide awake at the time of the inexplicable accident shortly after midnight.
Just four hours before his death Mike had stood up at Camp Hammer and said: "I want Christ to be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death."
At The Memorial Service
On Sept. 11, Rev. Ivan Smith, Pastor of Kathi, Mike and John, said
of them,
Dr. Roy McKeown said,
"These three young people in whose honor we are meeting today were not
ordinary young people. They were dedicated Christians. They were young
people who had completely sold out, so to speak, to Jesus Christ. They
loved Christ. They witnessed regularly for Christ. They were making plans
to go to the mission field to share Jesus Christ with other young people.
This is not the average young person."
At the Graveside
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of his saints. Psalm 116:15 Kathi, Mike, and
John were young saints. They loved Jesus Christ with all their hearts and
they talked excitedly about Him ... It is my prayer that I will never be
the same, after this day ..."
Jesus said,
"I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes on Me shall
live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes on Me shall
never die in eternity.
Do you believe this?"