ALTON - On August 19, 1925, Prudence Chappell, 29, and her 12-year-old sister Pearl were killed in an automobile accident. Prudence taught at Granite City Community High School and had been a teacher at Alton High School. She was an instructor in commercial subjects (she taught business classes) at the high school, and also organized a night business class in St. Louis, at Manchester and Taylor Avenues. After a month’s vacation around the Great Lakes, with visits to Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan, they were on their way back home for the start of the school year. Pearl, who suffered from heart disease and had been a patient at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for nearly a year, was well enough to join Prudence for the trip. The Chappells were a quarter of a mile north of Dwight, Ill., when their Buick roadster skidded 200 feet on wet pavement and overturned. Prudence died instantly. Pearl was taken to a government hospital in Dwight, but died 12 hours later. Driving
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