A light rain sprinkled the ground over Ruby South Carolina on Sunday morning November 24, 1957. The temperature hovered around 47 as 17 year old Joel Lee Mills started his day before the sun rose. He cranked the noisy engine of his dad’s milk tanker. It was a big responsibility driving the Seal test milk truck owned by his father, Joe Mills Sr. from nearby Mt. Croghan, South Carolina. Most of Chesterfield County received their milk deliveries from Mills’ family. With the exception of the farmers who already had their own milk cows, Mills deliveries provided the much needed service for the entire area.
Joe settled into his seat and steered the big truck out towards his first deliveries. Today would be a good day, he'd get done early and be home before the day was out to relax. Slowly the rain cleared off and the gentle breeze began to dry out the roadways Joe Mills would travel.
As the day progressed the temperature rose to a very mild 65 degrees, but it remained dark and overcast. After a long day, Mills made his way on Ruby Hartsville Highway towards the comforts of home, he squinted to see ahead ahead as the overcast skies blanketed the roadway. As Mills drove north , he approached the crest of a hill about 12 miles south of Ruby. The clock on the dash struck 3pm. No sooner did Mills reach the crest when there it was, a 1956 Chevy driven by Robert Hazel Miles, 32 of nearby Heath Springs, South Carolina. Miles had set out with his mother, sister, wife and two small children after Sunday church at Long Branch Baptist in Jefferson, SC towards Hartsville for a shopping excursion to prepare for the busy Thanksgiving week ahead. Betty Jean Miles, Robert's 14 year old sister, sat in the back seat and had the holidays on her mind. Robert's wife Christine was in the front passenger seat. Also in the back seat were Robert's mother Mary Miles and Robert and Christine's two small children, nine year old Judy Dianne, and one year old Kathy Jewel. Betty was so excited about the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. But those holidays would never arrive this year or ever again for the Miles family.
Crack. Like 100,000 sticks of dynamite exploding simultaneously, the two vehicles collided like rolling clouds of thunder. The Milk Tanker's left front impacted the left front of the Chevy Sedan with the force of a hurricane. The loading arm of the milk tanker driven by Joe Lee Mills sheered the top of the Chevy completely from the vehicle. As the crunching sound of metal on metal reverberated, Joe Mills was thrown from the milk tanker into a nearby ditch. He was badly injured but fared better than the Miles family. As the truck wallowed away, it slid some 200 feet and overturned. Meanwhile, the car was demolished. Wreckage littered the highway for another 100 yards. Christine and the two children died instantly. Robert Hazel Miles was pinned in the wreckage, but the trauma to his chest had been too forceful, he passed away before the wreckage of the car had come to a screeching halt some ways down the hill from the initial impact. The back of the car came to rest on the shoulder of the road and the front of the car crossways on the road. Ray Tyner was across the road when he heard the impact. He looked up to see the horrific scene and saw Joe Mills being thrown from his truck. Tyner immediately fled to the scene. Picked up Mills, saw he was alive and rushed him to the nearby hospital in Chesterfield, SC. Meanwhile, Vernon and Robert Goodwin had heard the impact as well. They also rushed to the scene. One called authorities immediately.
Fourteen year old Betty Miles was still alive when Sheriff J. E. Kirkley arrived on the scene. She fought gallantly for life as ambulance attendants loaded her up for the trip to the Perry Clinic in nearby Chesterfield. But before the ambulance could start the journey, Betty Jean breathed her last gasp of air on this earth.
Meanwhile, some 15 miles away in Jefferson, SC, Betty Jean's father, Oscar Miles had just gotten word of the accident. Friends drove Oscar to the scene where authorities were attempting to extricate the bodies from the wreckage. Oscar Miles broke down in a torrent of tears. He walked over to the ambulance to see the body of his daughter Betty Jean. The wails of agony came rushing like a wave. He was too wrought up to say anything. How could he? His whole world had just given way on the Ruby Hartsville Highway. The bodies of his wife Mary Sullivan Miles, his grandchildren Judy Diane and Kathy Jewel Miles and his daughter-in-law Christine Pierce Miles all lay in body bags, while authorities tried to pry open the mangled Chevy to retrieve the body of his son Robert Hazel Miles. And his daughter Betty Jean was lying dead in the ambulance. Precious human lives, taken away in the blink of an eye by two tons of crunching metal. This tragedy was more than one man like Oscar Miles should ever have to bear. The pain, the torture, the agony, the harrowing heartache of a tragedy no one can heal. The pain would linger the rest of Oscar's life until he passed away in 1982 and was finally reunited with his family in heaven.
Epilogue: Today in 2021 the bodies of the Miles family, Mary, Robert, Christine, Judy Diane, Kathy Jewel and Betty Jean all lie in a row of simply engraved stones in the cemetery at Longbranch Baptist Church in Jefferson, South Carolina. The patriarch of the family, Oscar Daniel Miles lies beside his wife Mary Sullivan Miles. Oscar died at the age of 79 on June 1, 1982. Probably still grieving all the way to the doorstep of death. His wife, two of his children, his daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, forever frozen in time, 3pm November 24, 1957, six deaths, one family. Exactly 48 hours after their deaths they were all laid to rest at Longbranch Baptist on Tuesday November 26, 1957 at 3pm, side-by-side together in peaceful sleep. The echoes of this great loss of life reverberated throughout Chesterfield County South Carolina for years to come. The pain, the torture, the agony, the harrowing heartache of a tragedy no one can heal.
The Miles Family at Longbranch Baptist Church, Jefferson, SC-picture by Dallas Reese April 2012
Joel Lee Mills, the driver of the milk tanker truck who was 17 at the time of the wreck, recovered from his injuries and continued to drive the milk truck for his dad in Chesterfield County, South Carolina for many years. He then became a self-employed truck driver and farmer. He became an upstanding man in the community. He passed away at the age of 80 on February 26, 2021 and is buried at Mt. Croghan Memorial Park in Mt. Croghan South Carolina. Most certainly the terribly unfortunate events of that mild November day in 1957 on the Ruby Hartsville Highway haunted him the rest of his life. It was a harrowing heartache of tragedy for all involved.
Joel Lee Mills
Copyright 2021-by Dallas Reese
Hilton Head, South Carolina
336-509-8009 c
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