Joseph B. Pickett, 37, postmaster, saved Martha Raye Lindsey, 17, from being killed by a train, Pope, Mississippi, July 30, 1959. At a railroad crossing Mrs. Lindsey’s pickup truck stalled across a track on which a passenger train was approaching at 60 m.p.h. When the train was within 600 feet of the crossing, the engineer noticed the truck and applied the emergency brakes while sounding the horn repeatedly. Mrs. Lindsey attempted to start the motor. Pickett ran 75 feet to the driver’s side of the truck and opened the door. The locomotive, then traveling at 40 m.p.h., was less than 100 feet away. Straddling one rail of the track, Pickett grasped Mrs. Lindsey and pulled her from the cab, dragging and carrying her as he stepped from the track. He had taken only two steps when the locomotive struck the truck, dragged it some distance, and then stopped 300 feet beyond the crossing. 44898-4340
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44898-4340