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Kenneth Wayne Fredericks was born June 27, 1943 and died December 6, 1957, accidental drowning while hunting. He is buried in St. Maurice Cemetery, St. Maurice, Winn Parish. A memorial picture is in our 1958 Chinquapin.
Search information from The Natchitoches Times, Friday, December 13, 1957:
High Water Halts Search for Lad
Search for Kenneth Wayne Fredericks, 14, missing since about 9:00 Friday morning, has been temporarily halted because of high water.
The lad, an Eighth grade pupil at Natchitoches High School, disappeared while rabbit hunting in the Pace Community, where he lives with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Desadier on Bayou Bourbeaux.
His dogs came back home about 11:00, but search did not begin until afternoon, and Sheriff Earl Morris, was not notified until 8:30 Friday night. Terrific rains falling until Saturday morning hampered the search.
About 200 men participated in the search at its peak, says sheriff Morris, with the Natchitoches Riding Club, ROTC from Northwestern State, the local National Guard, and other volunteers helping.
In addition, the Natchitoches Rescue Squad had dragged several places, and a helicopter from Camp Polk and one from England Air Force Base also assisting.
Search has been concentrated in the vicinity of the Prairie, one of the lakes of the Northwest Louisiana Game and Fish Preserve, popularly know as "Black Lake." A vast acreage of land now covered by winter rains is dry during the summer.
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From The Natchitoches Times, Friday, December 20, 1957:
Missing Lad is Found Drowned
The body of Kenneth Wayne Fredericks, 14, missing since December 6, was found in Bayou Bourbeaux Wednesday afternoon about 3:30. It was discovered by Mrs. Noah Desadier just behind the Pace Community Center hear a bridge spanning the bayou.
It is surmised that the youth fell into the water while crossing the bridge, but this will not be established until the high water recedes and his gun is found.
The lad left the home of his grandparents near the center about 9:00 a.m. December 6 to go rabbit hunting. His dogs came back about 11:00, and widespread search was made for him.
The Natchitoches Rescue Squad had dragged the bayou in the area where the body came up Wednesday.
Funeral services were held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Christian Harmony Baptist Church with the Rev. C. F. Shirley officiating. Burial was in the St.Maurice Cemetery under the direction of First National Funeral Home.
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Obituary from The Town Talk, Alexandria-Pineville, LA.
Missing Boy's Body is Found (Special to The Town Talk)
Natchitoches, LA -- Funeral services were scheduled today for Kenneth Wayne Fredericks, 14 year-old Clarence youth whose body was found in a bayou Wednesday, 12 days after he disappeared on a hunting trip.
The services were scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Christian Harmony Baptist Church in the Pace community. Burial was to follow in the St. Maurice cemetery under the direction of the First National Funeral Home of Natchitoches.
The death of young Fredericks was attributed to accidental drowning by Dr. I. L. Campbell, deputy coroner of Natchitoches Parish. The coroner said the boy apparently had been dead since December 6, the day he disappeared. The boy apparently fell from a bridge across the bayou into 12 feet of water.
The bayou in the Prairie Game Preserve is only about 300 yards from the hoe of the youth's grandfather, Charles Desadier, a game warden with whom the boy resided. The game preserve, about nine miles north of Natchitoches, is a vast swampy area controlled by the Natchitoches Parish Wildlife Commission.
Finding the youth's body culminated an intensive search which had been waged under the direction of Sheriff Earl Morris. Planes from the Civil Air Patrol along with a Louisiana State Police plane joined in the search which was set off December 6, when the boy failed to return to his grandfather's home from a hunting trip on which he went alone.
Survivors are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Fredericks; two sisters Carolyn Sue and Barbara Lynn, and one brother, Steve Larry Fredericks, all of the Pace community; his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Desadier, also of the Pace community.
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