OBITUARY INFORMATION FROM FIND-A-GRAVE WEBSITE:
 
Oscar Eugene “Gene” Mills
Birth         24 May 1930, Gary, Lake County, Indiana, USA
Death         12 Apr 1966 (aged 35), Gary, Lake County, Indiana, USA
Burial        Calumet Park Cemetery, Merrillville, Lake County, Indiana, USA
Memorial ID   178700723

Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011
Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001
Father: Oscar L. Mills
Mother: Nancy Lane
Spouse: Virginia M. Pictor

Trooper Oscar Eugene (Gene) Mills crashed his patrol car while on an emergency run just outside of Flora, Indiana, on November 30, 1957. He died after being in a coma on April 12, 1966.

Contributor: Wayne Sharp (46619522)
bluehorizon3652@sbcglobal.net

The Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Indiana)
13 Apr 1966, Wed
Page 6

Trooper Dies 8 Years After Auto Crash

Gary, Ind. (UPI) - Death came mercifully to Indiana State Police Trooper Oscar E. Mills, 35, Hobart, who lay unconscious in a hospital for more than eight years after his patrol car crashed while chasing a speeder.

Mills died late Tuesday night in Mercy Hospital where he had been under constant around-the-clock care since shortly after the accident on Nov. 30, 1957.

During the 3,055-day ordeal for Mills' widow, Virginia, and the couple's four children, medical and hospital bills totaled 155,500 and were paid by ISP funds.

As Secretary

Mills' widow took a position as secretary at the ISP post headquarters at Schererville near her home shortly after the accident and the word from the doctors that there was little hope Mills ever would regain consciousness.

Mills was on patrol duty on the fateful day in 1957 when he sped in pursuit of a vehicle on Indiana 18 in Carroll County. At a point about four miles west of Flora, another motorist misjudged the trooper's speed and turned left in front of him.

The patrol car barely glanced the other car but it sent it careening out of control and across a barnyard where is smashed into a corn crib. Mills suffered a severe skull fracture.

Mills joined the force in 1955 and was working out of Lafayette district headquarters when the accident happened.

Married Virginia M Pictor on 7 Sep 1950

This information and the pictures below were obtained from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178700723/oscar_eugene-mills. The picture above was obtained from the 1948 HHS Memories yearbook, made available by the Lake County Public Library, at: https://archive.org/details/brick-art-1948-images/.