Driver Arrested In Mannford Boy's Death

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

MANNFORD, OK -- A Mannford family is dealt a terrible blow.  Nine-year-old Hershel Clark had just gotten off the school bus on Thursday afternoon when he was run over by a suspected intoxicated driver and killed.  It happened near 101st Street and 369th West Avenue.

Family photos reveal that Hershel Clark was a darling third grader.  He was named after his grandfather and father, so his family called him Bubba.  They say he was all boy and all country.  He loved to fish and hunt, played basketball and baseball and enjoyed riding his four-wheeler.

He was the only boy with four sisters and a step sister, being raised by a single dad.  A dad who is now struggling to make sense of his son being gone.

"I'd give anything to have him here with us and take back what happened but I can't," said his father, Hershel Clark.

The school bus dropped off Hershel and two of his cousins off on a dirt road Thursday afternoon.  His aunt, Shelly, walked down to meet them when some men she recognized from the area, pulled up in a truck to speak.  The driver then pulled forward and ran over Hershel.

"I crawled under the truck with my nephew and held his hand. I just talked to him and told him it would be okay. I noticed his lips turning gray, so I pulled him out and moved him over to the grass," said Shelly Clark.

Hershel's grandmother, who can now only sit in a chair and sob, gave him CPR until a medical chopper flew him to Tulsa.

"I told my four year old here, when we were at the hospital last night, she asked me if Bubba got off the chopper, if he was on there and I told her he was, but then went to be with Jesus and a tear ran down her face. I don't know how a four year old can understand, but she knows," said his father, Hershel Clark.

The driver, Phillip Dewayne Isaacs, was booked for first-degree manslaughter, open container and DUI-drugs.

The Clark family learned it will cost $4,000 for a funeral, not including the casket and burial, money they just don't have.

A fund has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses at the Bank of Oklahoma.  Money can be donated to the Hershel Clark Contribution Fund.