Compiled by Teresa
Martin Klaiber 2023
Catlettsburg
has been dubbed with several nicknames including Gate City (because of flood
walls) and Cow Town (because of the stock yard that was there for many years).
The residents of Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Kentucky are a tight knit group of
caring people. Many folks already had
Halloween decorations hanging outside and the weather was fair when tragedy
struck Gate City, October 1966.
A
terrible house fire occurred on the 26 October 1966 on Center Street [i]in
Catlettsburg. The house was owned by Damron’s and rented to Ethmon and Juanita
Sparks Fugate along with their eight children.
The local newspaper[ii] published the tale the following morning,
after the death of the youngest child David Wayne Fugate.
Eldest
son, Simeon Thomas (age 20) had taken a gasoline can into the bathroom to clean
(we assume to remove oil or paint), stepped into the tub, when another child knocked
over the can which promptly ignited. He got out of the tub, grabbed the child and
immediately ran from the house. All others, at home, including the owner,
Damron, escaped but the home was gutted.
David
Wayne Fugute, the tiniest member of the family, was born 29 April 1965[iii]
in Boyd County. He was just eighteen
months old. A little angel. There are several inconsistencies in the news
article, including the various ages of the other children. One blaring error is that Martha Klaiber Cox
was a sister. She was in fact a close
friend and distant relative of David’s grandmother Nora Gallion Sparks. At the time Cox was working in the county
clerk’s office at the courthouse and was probably with her when the newspaper
was trying to get an interview. The
Fugate family, did in fact have a little girl Martha (born 1948).
The
article also states that David Wayne Fugate died from the burns he
received. But another sister, Darlene,
then only four, wrote me in 2004 stating that he “hid and they could not find
him.” She goes on to say “I was only 4
when our house burnt and David was lost. David did not die from the burns, but
his lungs gave out.” No matter the
circumstances, the little tyke, had been taken from them.
David
Wayne Fugate was named for his grandfather Dave Sparks. David born 12 March 1898 in Elliott County,
Kentucky had married Nora Gallion[iv]
in 1917. Dave had died 10 April 1966,
after a two-day illness, and was buried in Klaiber Cemetery where Gallion and
Sexton’s also were laid to rest. Little
David Wayne Fugate was buried in Klaiber Cemetery.
Mother,
Juanita Sparks Fugate[v]
moved to George County, Mississippi and was living with daughter Darlene when
she died 19 January 2016. She was
brought back to Kentucky and is buried next to her forever baby, David Wayne
Fugate.
