Stunned Dad Stands Alone At Burial of 8 Children Tribune - Oct 18 SIGOURNEY, IOWA, Oct. 27 (UP) - Eight brothers and sisters killed in a car-train wreck were buried Saturday in a cemetery adjacent to the country church where their parents were married 10 years ago. THE SMALL white caskets containing the bodies of all the children of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hammes were lowered side by side into a common grave next to St. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church in the village of Clear Creek. Hammes, a farmer and lifelong member of the parish, stood stunned and alone as the “Mass of the Angels” was said. His wife, who was driving the car when it was struck by a train Thursday, 1956 was unable to attend. Physicians said she was suffering from severe shock and refused her permission to attend the final rites. More than 400 friends and neighbors crowded the church and overflowed into the outer grounds to grieve for the children. The line of caskets, the smallest only two feet long, were placed on the dias of the church as the Rev. William F. Wiebler said the mass. The children were nine-year-old twins Donald and Ronald; Karen, 8; Linda, 7; Gary, 6; Rosemary, 3; and 18-month-old twins, Rickey and Vicky.