Services have been announced for Brother Michael Cella, the SMART Transportation Division conductor, who was killed in the Amtrak Train 91 collision Feb. 4 in Cayce, S.C. A gathering of Cella’s friends and family will be 10 a.m. to noon immediately followed by a celebra [...]
Real-life Rosie the Riveter, Naomi Parker Fraley, died Saturday, Jan. 20. The iconic World War II “We Can Do It!” posters were based on a 1942 photo of Parker taken while standing at a lathe. A waitress, turned lathe operator, Fraley and her sister Ada joined the [...]
Phyllis Reed of Florence, Ky., passed away Wednesday, January 3, 2018, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Florence. Phyllis was born Aug. 17, 1939, to the late Victor and Mary Osborn. She married former B&O General Committee General Chairman J.T. “Terry” Reed in 196 [...]
Brother Nicholas A. Vosejpka, of Hampton, Minn., a switchman with SMART TD Local 1614, died while on duty Dec. 30, 2017, as he worked as a yard foreman at Union Pacific’s Hoffman Yard in St. Paul, Minn. Vosejpka, 35, was walking in the yard performing an air-test in temperatu [...]
Gregory Gabriel Meehan, 87, passed away Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, surrounded by his family. Visitation was at Buckley Funeral Home, 509 Second Ave., Asbury Park, N.J., Dec. 3. Funeral Mass was celebrated Dec. 4 at Holy Spirit Church, [...]
Peter N. Spalding, 75, died Saturday, Dec. 16. Spalding hired out with CSX in 1964 and was a member of Local 376 in Louisville, Ky. He eventually came to work at the UTU International, then headquartered in downtown Cleveland. While at the UTU, he served the membership in the [...]
Lawrence J. Crist, 91, died Nov. 7 at the Sioux City hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. Crist started his railroad career with the Illinois Central Railroad when he hired out as a brakeman and worked his way up to the position of conductor. A member of Local 493 in Waterloo, Iowa, [...]
Clyde Larson, 62, described as “an absolute pillar” of the railroad labor community in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, died on Nov. 8. “Brother Clyde was a tremendously generous person and assisted all crafts,” said SMART TD Minnesota Legislative Director Phillip Qualy. “Cl [...]
John Harold Burner, 75, of Robinson, Ill., a former assistant state director for the United Transportation Union, died at 10:50 p.m. Oct. 22, 2017 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Ind. He was born April 21, 1942, the son of Harold & Edith (Comer) Burner, both [...]
Retired Texas State Legislative Director Cornelius “Connie” M. English Jr., 74, died at his home of Congestive Heart Failure, Sat., Oct. 14. A veteran of the Army National Guard, English joined the Army in 1962 and was stationed in Ft. Polk, Louisiana; Bergstrom Air Force Bas [...]