Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.
Don Keene
Donald Eugene Kuehn started his professional wrestling career in 1946 at the age of 21 years old. Kuehn wrestled under the moniker of Don Keene. He was raised in the the world of pro wrestling, as his adopted father Joe Gunter was a wrestling promoter based in Birmingham, Alabama and his older brother Charley Keene also wrestled professionally. Don Keene also was a semi professional boxer.
Keene’s last match took place of December 22, 1950 in New Mexico. After the match, Keene charted a plane to return to his home in Birmingham to spend the Christmas holiday with family. The day after Christmas, Keene once again charted a small plane to fly out to Amarillo, Texas for another wrestling engagement. Sadly, not long after take off…his plane crashed in an open field in Montevallo, Alabama killing him. Don Keene was just 25 years old at the time of his death.