BOMBER MEMORIAL

MARJORIE MAY CAROL "MARGIE" HIBSCHER KURTH ~ Class of 1968
January 19, 1950 - July 17, 1972

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Published in the Tri-City Herald on July 18, 1972:

Marjorie, 22, died July 17, 1972, when she and her husband went to Lost Lake on a picnic. Lost Lake is behind the Tri-City Raceways track. Mrs. Kurth was floating on a rubber raft in the lake when her husband went to get fire wood. He heard a shout, but by the time he reached his wife, it was too late, reported Benton County sheriff's officers who investigated the drowning.

Mrs. Kurth played in the Columbia High School band and graduated from high school in 1968, and from Columbia Basin College in 1970, according to her mother, Mary Hibscher, who lives in Richland with her husband, George.

Mrs. Kurth reportedly was a good swimmer and fond of boating and water skiing.


Published in the Tri-City Herald on July 19, 1972:

Services for Mrs. John (Marjorie May Carol) Kurth, 22, of Richland, who drowned July 17, 1972, were July 21, 1972, at Einan's Funeral Home with the Rev. Vernon Holliday officiating.

She was born January 19, 1959, in Billings, MT, and had lived in the Tri-Cities for ten years.

She was a member of the Kennewick Baptist Church and was a 1968 graduate of Richland's Columbia High School, and Columbia Basin College in 1970.

Survivors include her husband, John; son Charles; and parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Hibsher.

Burial was in Sunset Memorial Gardens.


Published in the Tri-City Herald on July 27, 1972:

"Mind test ordered in Lost Lake death"

John C. Kurth, Richland, charged with murder in the Lost Lake drowning of his wife will undergo psychiatric testing at Eastern Washington State Hospital before entering his plea.

An order for the tests was signed today, July 27, 1972, by Judge James Lawless in Benton County Superior Court.

Kurth, 24, of Richland, is being held without bail in the Benton County jail, charged with murdering his wife, Majorie May Carol Kurth, 22, on July 19, 1972.

Psychiatrists will be asked to determine whether Kurth was legally sane on the day of his wife's death, whether it would be safe for him to remain at large if released on bond and whether he would be capable of standing trial and assisting his attorney in preparation of the defense.

The report is to be completed by September 8, 1972.


"Kurth Handed Life Sentence"

Prosser, WA (AP) --

John C. Kurth, 25, has been sentenced to life imprisonment on a second-degree murder charge filed in connection with the July 17, 1972, drowning death of his wife.

Kurth pleaded guilty to the charge December 7, 1972.

Marjorie May Kurth, 22, drowned July 17, 1972, in a seepage lake near West Richland. Authorities first ruled the drowning an accident. However, Kurth told deputies three days later he had held his wife's head under water until she was dead. "Time is the only corrective device," Superior Court Judge James Lawless told Kurth. "Some people are able to develop the body of a 25-year-old but have only a 6-year-old's emotional maturity."



Bomber Memorial put together by Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66).