Fallen Warriors

Michael Horton - Class Of 1969

DAILY PRESS
Copyright (c) 1991, The Daily Press, Inc.

DATE: July 8, 1991
PAGE: B2
SECTION: Obituaries
EDITION: Final

OBITUARIES

BYLINE:  Compiled by UNK

MICHAEL B. HORTON

HAMPTON -- Michael B. Horton, 40, died Thursday, July 4, in a boating accident.  A native of the Fox Hill section, Mr. Horton was the owner of Peninsula Screen Printing Co.  A 1969 graduate of Kecoughtan High School, he graduated from Appalachian State College in 1973 and was a member of YOSEF Alumni Association.  He taught at Kecoughtan High School and Phoebus High School and was assistant football coach and track coach. He also taught at Dunbar Middle School in Newport News. Mr. Horton also coached for the Fox Hill Athletic Association and served as past president of Fox Hill Softball Association.

He was a member of Fox Hill Central United Methodist Church.  Survivors include his wife, Diana K. Horton; a stepson, Christopher Koskinas; his father, Edwin M. Horton; a sister, Kathleen S. Horton; and a brother, Robert E. Horton, all of Hampton.  A funeral will be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday in Fox Hill Central United Methodist Church by the Rev. George T. Insley Jr. Burial will be in Clark Cemetery.

The family will received friends from 7 to 8:30 tonight at R. Hayden Smith Funeral Home.

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DAILY PRESS
Copyright (c) 1990, The Daily Press, Inc.

Page: UNK
Date: July 1990

Boater Dies In Accident At Bridge

By RONNIE CROCKER
Staff Writer
    

A Hampton man was killed early Thursday on the James River while attempting to move his 31-foot sport fishing boat away from the Interstate 664 bridge tunnel, where the vessel had drifted after its anchor line became entangled with that of another boat.  Michael B. Horton, 40, of Horton Road, was pinned between the raised bridge of his boat and the 1664 bridge, said Sgt. James Pritchard of the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.  Horton's wife was on board when the accident occurred shortly before 1 a.m., and friends were in the adjacent boat. Pritchard said the group had been fishing.

Pritchard said it appeared that Horton's boat, the Ms Yosef registered in Hampton, was anchored alongside one belonging to friends when the anchor lines became entangled. This caused the vessels to drift toward the bridge, he said. Because the high tide was coming in, there was not enough room for Horton's boat to pass underneath.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Patrick Culver said the boat became wedged under the bridge. While trying to back the boat out, he said, Horton hit his head on the concrete.  His head then became trapped between the boat's "flying bridge" and the 1-664 bridge.  Pritchard said rescuers had to cut away part of the fiberglass boat to remove Horton's body.