On the evening of Saturday, June 7, 1975, at age eight, struck by a landing airplane while playing a game of…
On the evening of Saturday, June 7, 1975, at age eight, struck by a landing airplane while playing a game of "spud" with a group of children near Eden's Sky Ranch, a grass runway at 112th and Holdrege Streets, Lancaster County, Nebraska. Ran out onto the runway at approximately 8:30 p.m. and was struck by a small aircraft. Left arm severed by the propeller and reattached by a returned Vietnam War veteran surgeon at St. Elizabeth Community Health Center in Lincoln, Nebraska; dominant left hand later amputated due to gangrene. Listed in fair condition. Reported in the Lincoln Evening Journal, Monday, June 9, 1975, page 6: "Boy Struck by Plane Listed in Fair Condition." Father: Frederick Sesow, Rt. 2. This life-altering event became a foundational influence on his later artwork. (Note: some early published biographies list 1974; the artist confirms 1975 and possesses the original newspaper clipping.)
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Lincoln Evening Journal, June 9, 1975, p. 6 — "Boy Struck by Plane Listed in Fair Condition"Page 6 (Regional), Lincoln Evening Journal, June 9, 1975 — the article sits under the coal-pipeline story · Lincoln Evening Journal via Newspapers.comFront page of the same edition, Monday, June 9, 1975 · Lincoln Evening Journal via Newspapers.com
The report ran two days after the accident, on page 6, with no byline. It says nothing about his hand; the reattached arm and the later amputation of his dominant left hand are recorded by the family and in later interviews.
Where this record comes from
history.sesow.com (live, 2026-10-03)
Cite as: Sesow, Matt. “On the evening of Saturday, June 7, 1975, at age eight, struck by a landing airplane while playing a game of….” Matt Sesow Career Chronicle, 1975. history.sesow.com/e/1975-evening-saturday-june-age-eight.html. Accessed [date].
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Saved copy · 1 page
Lincoln Evening Journal, June 9, 1975, page 6 (Newspapers.com image 61033092)
Page 1
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Full text
Text taken from the saved copy (where a page was only an image, it was machine-read and may contain errors — check against the page image before quoting). Copyright remains with the original publisher; kept for the historical record.
3 Lincoln Evening Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Mon, Jun 9, 1975 - Page 6
Lincoln Evening Journal, June 9, 1975, front page (Newspapers.com image 61033087)
Page 1
Click a page to open it — scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move, arrow keys for the next page.
Full text
Text taken from the saved copy (where a page was only an image, it was machine-read and may contain errors — check against the page image before quoting). Copyright remains with the original publisher; kept for the historical record.
3 Lincoln Evening Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Mon, Jun 9, 1975 - Page 1
