Kern County Obituaries

Kenneth Wayne Palmer

Submitted by Don Stowell; 13 Feb 2008

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Mojave Desert News; 5 Jun 1947

Ridgecrest Boy Killed, Companion Hurt by Explosion of Their Homemade Bomb
Here is a stary which has, been repeated, with other characters, any number ,.of times in 
newspapers all aver the country, but still our children do not profit by its reading.
Kenneth Wayne Palmer, with two campanions were playing at Ridgecrest the other day, when 
they decided it would be fun to make a bomb and watch it blowup. Taking a short piece of pipe 
they stapped up one end with a T connection, broke open several shotgun shells to obtain the 
powder which they placed in the pipe and stuffed wadded paper in the other end. They put their 
homemade bamb in the end of an old turtleback Ford body and built a powder train to it, set it off 
but were unable to get out of the way when it exploded in time. The T connection was driven 
through the heart of the Palmer boy killing him instantly, one of his companions had his left arm 
torn so badly it required several hours of treatment to save it and the other boy got off unhurt. 
The body of the dead boy was taken to the O'Donnell Funeral Home for burial preparation, the 
funeral will be held Friday at Ridgecrest. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James 
Palmer, four brothers and one sister. He was 14 years of age.
Arrangements for interrment are pending. We hope that in the future should some other children 
get the same idea, they will carefully reread this story and refrain from being exposed to the same 
fate as little Kenneth Wayne Palmer. There are any number of ways to have fun without 
endangering yourselves.