From the Berks County Reading Eagle, August 24, 1947.
Four Killed as Plane Explodes in Virginia
GALAX, Va. Aug 23 [AP] A single-engine plane, groping through the mists that shrouded the rugged peaks of southwest Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains exploded and smashed into a hillside 20 miles west of here today killing its four occupants.
First reports identified the aircraft as an army ship but state police said later it was a Beechcraft civilian trainer from the McKeen Flying School in Columbus, Ga.
The dead were identified as: Maj. Neil Taylor, Greenwood, Miss.; Capt. W. M. Lavancher, Columbus, Ga.; Lieut. George Kish, Fort Benning, Ga.; and Gary Wood King, Columbus, Ga.
Note: McKeen Flying School should probably be King’s Flying School; there were no schools by the name of McKeen in the area. See King’s School of Aviation.