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He
died October 3, 1933, after a motorcycle/automobile accident
when he was just 28. The accident occurred October 1 outside of
Macon, Georgia. Traveling 35 miles per hour on a motorcycle, "Strib"
was en route to a hospital to visit his convalescing wife and
their brand-new baby (his third child), born two weeks
previously. He waved a greeting to a friend passing in an
automobile. But he failed to see another car behind that of his
friend, Roy Barrow. The veteran of roughly 300 bouts, who never
received a permanent scar due to his great defensive skills,
attempted to dodge the second car but was too late. The fender
of the car struck Stribling, crushing and virtually ripping off
his left foot, and sending him to the pavement, fracturing his
pelvis.
Stribling was taken to the hospital, where, coincidentally,
his wife and baby were. His mother rushed to the hospital from
the Stribling plantation in South Georgia; his father from
Texas. At one point he awoke, saw his wife, and asked, "How's
the baby?" Almost to the end he remained conscious, "carrying on
in the same spirit that he showed when they picked him up from
the roadside on Sunday," reported papers of the day. "Well,
kid," he said to his friend (Barrow), who was the first to reach
him as he lay beside his wrecked motorcycle with one foot
dangling by a single tendon, "I guess this means more roadwork."
At first the doctors held out hope, after they had amputated
his left foot. But his vitality began to wane. Physicians were
amazed at his ability to cling to life when his temperature hit
107 1/2 degrees and his pulse 175. His wife was wheeled into his
room. He recognized his wife. "W.L.?" "Sugar," was his barely
audible reply. "Hello, baby," were his last words to her, the
papers reported. His father walked grimly from the room and
tearfully said, "He's gone." Death occurred at 6:00 Tuesday
morning, October 3. The next day, his body was placed in the
Municipal Auditorium of Macon, to lie in state from 10 in the
morning until 6 that evening |
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