Raymond V. Chaplin, 51, of Brookhaven, Mississippi, formerly of Richland County, has been missing since Friday April 16, 1976 and is presumed drowned following an oil rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico.  He was reported missing at 6 a.m. on that date, while he was working on a rig about 40 miles off the coast of Venice, La.

Mr. Chaplin, an employee of the Diamond M. Drilling Co., had gone below the rig to check equipment and was to have radioed a report at 6 a.m.  When his report was not received, a search was started by the U.S. Coast Guard and oil company crews, with negative results.

Mr. Chaplin was a 1942 graduate of Olney Township High School and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps after graduation during World War II.After the war, he worked in oil fields in this area for about three years and went to Oklahoma, where he lived in Chickasha and worked in oil fields there. For a three-year period, about 1959-1962, he returned to Richland County, then moved to Mississippi about 1962, working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He had been an employee of the Diamond M. Co. the past six years.

He was formerly a member of the First Methodist Church in Olney and was a member of the Easthaven Baptist Church in Brookhaven, Miss.

Surviving are his wife, Ella Mae; two sons, Michael of Dallas, Texas and James in the U.S. Army in Germany; a daughter, Patricia of Dallas, Texas; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Russell (Ida Myrtle) Chaplin of Olney; a brother, Eldon Chaplin of Decatur; a sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd (Fay) Ault of Olney; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Memorial services held at Hartman-Henderson Funeral Home Chapel in Brookhaven, Miss.

Published in Olney Daily Mail (IL) ~ August 27, 1976

Grave marker at Crest Haven Memorial Park Cemetery in Claremont, Illinois with the following inscription: Lost at sea from Rig 93 ~ Final resting place - Gulf of Mexico