V.E. Kilpatrick, Jr., 74, of Brinkley, Ark., died Wednesday, May 23, 2018, in Little Rock, Ark. He was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1969 after he saved a boy from being struck by a fast freight train in 1968 in Weiner, Ark. After seeing a mother and her two children inside a pickup truck stalled on train tracks with a train approaching, Kilpatrick and another man attempted to push it off the tracks. Unable to move it, the other man, opened the driver’s door and removed a woman and her daughter. With the train only 500 feet away from striking the truck, Kilpatrick then entered the truck, pulled the boy to his chest and dived from the train’s path. The train demolished the truck and came to a stop about a half-mile past the point of impact. Kilpatrick was born in 1943 in Orange, Texas, and worked as a brakeman and conductor for the railroad for 38 years. He enjoyed mechanical work, and, according to his obituary, one of his proudest moments was getting his old tractor running again. Kilpatrick was survived by his wife, Joan Kilpatrick; four siblings, four children, nine grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.