Charles Earl Fallet

 

Born 04 Jun 1892, Fletcher, Jefferson County, MO

Parents George Lewis Fallet & Cora A. Merseal

Died 09 Sep 1968, DeSoto, Jefferson County, MO

Buried DeSoto City Cemetery

 

PPG Death Records (1917)

Chas. E. Fallet (as signing Coroner)

 

Jefferson County Record, February 08, 1917
Mike CLOVER, a farmer of lower Belews Creek died last Sunday. He had been ill some time and shortly before his death, he asked his family to retire from the room and informed Dr. L. F.  PARKER, his attending physician, that he had been poisoned and would die. Fred HEIDBRINK was present and heard the statement made. CLOVER died as he said he would and while Dr. PARKER was almost certain that there was only delirium in his statement, the fact that his patient believed it, so preyed upon his mind that he could not suffer the funeral to go on without examination into the facts. The Coroner being absent at the time, Judge J. P. MILLER and Robt. E. KLEINSCHMIDT, Prosecuting Attorney started out to hold the inquest. In the meantime Dr. LUCKEY had been summoned and Dr. FALLETT the Coroner arrived before the investigation began. A jury was empanelled and found that Mr. Clover came to his death from natural causes, but recommended an autopsy. The Doctors PARKER, LUCKEY, and FALLETT held the autopsy and from all appearances indorsed the jury's finding. In order that there might not remain any trace or vestige of suspicion, the stomach was removed and sent to Washington University for analysis and unless poison is found therein, this statement must be taken as the disordered imagination of a very sick mind. The funeral which was to have been held Tuesday was postponed on account of the inquest and autopsy and was held yesterday.

 

Jefferson Co. Record, Feb. 15, 1917

Dr. J. H. PARKER Makes the Following Statement to the Public Concerning The Death of Mike CLOVER: So much has been said and thought that is untrue, concerning the demise of the late Michael CLOVER, I have concluded that it is no more than r??? to the family, to Mr. HEIDBRINK and myself that a statement of the actual facts in the case he presented to the public. I am conversant with the family possibly more so than any other, I have no earthly reason to tell as the truth about this case. If you have heard or thought other than is related below, and if you love the truth, prepare to disgorge yourself of your obvious opinion, for this is the truth.

Mike CLOVER told Fred HEIDBRINK and myself, on Friday before he died on Saturday, that he had been poisoned. Told us that someone, he accused no one in particular, had put lye in a glass containing whiskey that he had been drinking from. He said he was going to die and asked that after his death that I perform an autopsy on his body and ascertain whether or not he was speaking the truth. He was seemingly at the time as sane as he ever was in his life. I was with him an hour and neither heard him utter a delirious remark or saw him act in any manner other than a man well set who had absolute control of his mind. Fred HEIDBRINK who probably knew him better than any man on Belews Creek had been with him for five hours and Fred said he was at himself.

His temperature was not high and he was not under the influence of any drug at the time that would affect his mind. Prior to that time I had not the slightest suspicion of anything of the sort. Some one has said that I had said that I suspected poisoning from the beginning. I never said it. He died, as he had predicted. What were we to do? It was a grave and serious thing to tell what we had been told and a dangerous thing to conceal it. Other than his dying word there was nothing to cause us to believe he had been poisoned. Symptoms had developed that we knew were pneumonic in character. Nothing else. I could sign a death certificate with pneumonia as the cause of death with a clear conscience, knowing he had pneumonia. We delayed making a decision as to what we would do and herein we are to blame. We admit it. But put yourself in our place for one moment and then tell me would you decide in an hour whether you would arouse the entire country and practically accuse one of the finest families in the county, of murder, or would you allow the burial to proceed unmolested and possibly conceal a terrible crime?

At the eleventh hour we decided to do an autopsy, hoping that it would prove that his death was caused by pneumonia alone and thus save the family of this awful stigma and also save Mr. HEIDBRINK and myself from carrying through life the thought that possibly we had concealed a crime. There was the happy termination. A complete autopsy performed by Coroner FALLET, Dr. LUCKEY and myself, together with a chemical analysis of the stomach, showed Mr. CLOVER’s suspicion to be unfounded.
And so ends the case. Mrs. CLOVER remains the same estimable lady, above reproach that she has always been in the minds of all right thinking people. We feel sorry for the family that this trouble came up affording such scandal mongers and tattlers a chance to get in their deadly work.

Jefferson County Record April 12, 1917

Dr. FALLET has a new Chevrolet roadster, purchased of H. HAMEL, the agent.

 

WWI Draft Registration, June 1917

Charles Earl Fallet, Age 25, Single

Residence DeSoto

Born June 4 1892 at Frumet, MO

Occupation Physician

Med Height, Med Build, Brown eyes, Black hair

 

Doctor’s Permits to Prescribe Ethyl Alcohol and Wine 1922-33

Jefferson College 790 II D-R

Chas. Earl Fallett, Festus

 

1936 Directory of the City of DeSoto

Dr. C.E. Fallet, Tel. 73, 112 A. N. Main

 

Charles E. Fallet: by George Keane

Dr. Fallet and Dr. W. W. Wieman D.D.S. shared office space and interests in fishing and hunting. Dr. Wieman also contributed his efforts to civic enterprises. Both men were honored by the Rotary club for their community service. Dr. Fallet was a prominent physician and civic leader. Born June 4, 1892 and reared in the Fletcher area on Star Route West, Dr. Fallet was the son of George Lewis and Cora A. Merseal Fallet. By the time he was 16, his mother was a widow with seven children of whom Dr. Fallet was the eldest. He attended a country school in the Fletcher Area. Dr. Fallet’s long time office nurse, Mrs. Lysle Filkins, related a story about the doctor. “He came into the office and handed me a piece of paper and asked if I could read that fellow’s writing. It took a while but when it was deciphered he said “Well I wrote it but I couldn’t read it.”

 

Dr. Fallet was much interested in the merger of the Friedens Evangelical & Reformed and the Congregational churches. He was always interested in the towns appearance and it was through his suggestion to Mrs. Fred Spross that the city purchased the land for the park. Dr. Fallet’s spouse, Blanche E. Fallet lived to age 90. She was born in Vineland in 1910 and was a retired DeSoto school teacher and active in the Eastern Star, P.E.O.  DAR and others. Mrs. Fallet’s place of internment is Woodlawn Cemetery, DeSoto.

 

Daily News Democrat Sep. 14, 1968

Charles Earl Fallet, M.D., 76, a practicing physician in DeSoto since 1915, died suddenly at his office at 108 North Main Street  DeSoto, at 10:15a.m. Monday of an apparent heart attack.

 

Dr. Fallet, a civic leader in the DeSoto area, had just returned from a vacation and it was his first day back at his office.  He had finished seeing his patients and was preparing to make his house calls when he collapsed.  His nurse, Mrs. Lysle Filkins heard the doctor fall in the rear part of his office where he had gone to check some x-rays.  He was pronounced dead at his office where he had served the community for 53 years.

 

Dr. Fallet was a 50 year member of DeSoto Lodge 119, AF and AM, and the American Medical Association.  He was a Past President of the DeSoto Chamber of Commerce, Past Exalted Ruler of DeSoto Elks Lodge, former member of the DeSoto Park board, past commander of the DeSoto American Legion, and past chairman of the Valle township Red Cross chapter. He was a member of the staff at Jefferson Memorial hospital here and had been on the staff of the Missouri Pacific hospital, St. Louis, over 40 years. He was a member of the Copestone Chapter 33 RAM, and DeSoto Commandery 56, Knights Templer, and for many years had been active in Boy Scouting.

 

A native of Jefferson county, Dr. Fallet was born in the Fletcher community June 4, 1892, son of the late George Louis and Cora (nee Merseal) Fallet. Shortly after completing medical school he entered the military service in June, 1917, and served for two years, resuming his practice in DeSoto, on his return from World War I.

Survivors are his wife, the former Miss Blanche Wilson of DeSoto: a son George Fallet, St. Louis county: two sisters, Mrs. Paul (Anna) Maness, St. Louis, and Mrs. Frank (Dora) Kilzer, Billings, Mont.: three brothers , G. A. Fallet of Lake Worth, Fla., Fred of Montebello Calif.,  and Jess, of Monterrey California: and two grandchildren.

 

 Funeral will be from the Dietrich funeral home DeSoto, to the United church of Christ for 2 P.M. Services Thursday with Rev. C. H. Rohlfing officiating,  Interment will be in the City cemetery, DeSoto.

 

A son, Mark, was lost in Air  Force action over Germany in World War II. Dr. Fallet graduated from National University, St. Louis in 1915.  During World War I he was assigned to the British Medical corps, and was in turn assigned to the French army, serving in France.