Sunset Carson was visiting in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early ‘50s when he was approached by one of the city’s newspaper owners and asked to visit the man’s son at their home. The son, a big fan of Sunset’s, had broken his leg and was housebound therefore unable to see Sunset while the cowboy was in town. Sunset agreed to visit the boy at his home. As you can see in the above picture, Sunset had his rifle with him and allowed the boy to hold the rifle for the picture. What Sunset failed to do was twofold. First he forgot to unload the rifle or to even tell the boy the rifle was loaded. What you don’t see is the boy firing the rifle and wounding Sunset in the leg. The photo below shows the results as Sunset is being carried to an ambulance headed for the hospital. Moral of the story: Never allow anyone to play with a loaded gun. (The Jackson, MS, CLARION LEDGER photographer at the time was Cliff Bingham whose daughter, Marjorie Bowron, saved these photos and passed them on to Danny Brown of Blairsville, GA.)
