By Emily Ingram

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Oliver Tomlinson, 71-year-old father of San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, and Ronald McClain, 49, believed to be LaDainian’s brother, are dead following a one-vehicle wreck just east of Waco this afternoon.

Ronald was rushed by ambulance to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center where he died at 4:38 p.m.

Justice of the Peace Kristi DeCluitt pronounced Oliver Tomlinson dead on the scene at 1:32 p.m. She ordered the body to be sent for an autopsy.

DPS spokesman Charlie Morgan said LaDainian Tomlinson, who grew up in Waco and graduated from University High School, had been notified about the one-vehicle rollover. Morgan said he understood LaDainian was returning to Central Texas.

Jennifer Rojas, a public relations assistant in the San Diego Chargers’ front office, told the Tribune-Herald that LaDainian was believed to have been on vacation, possibly out of the country, at the time of this afternoon’s accident.

Jewel Tomlinson, Oliver’s wife and LaDainian’s step-mother, told the Tribune-Herald that her husband and McClain had been returning to Waco after a trip back to the family home in Tomlinson Hill. Oliver had been staying in Waco recently, she said, while recovering from an illness.

They had made the trip to Falls County to check on a burglary of Tomlinson’s home there, Jewel Tomlinson said.

The men were in the blue pickup truck when it was involved in the accident at the intersection of South Farm-to-Market Road 434 and Farm to Market 2643, east of Waco near the tiny community of Asa, the DPS said. The truck flipped over and came to rest on its side up against a county gravel storage area near the road.

The accident occurred at 1:30 p.m. when the vehicle, travelling north on FM 434, swerved right, briefly going off the road. The driver, McClain, reportedly over-corrected, causing the vehicle to then swerve to the left and race off the road.

The vehicle then flipped, landing on the gravel mound.

Both McClain and Tomlinson were ejected from the vehicle. Morgan said the two did not appear to be wearing seatbelts.

A lifelong resident of Tomlinson Hill, Oliver Tomlinson would frequently brag to those passing through the Falls County community that his son played football for the San Diego Chargers and that they were going to win the Super Bowl. He dismissed all notions the team might not make it through two playoff games.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Oliver said LaDainian had asked him to move to San Diego, but that he had been reluctant to leave Tomlinson Hill, named for James K. Tomlinson, who owned slaves who took their former master’s name. LaDainian Tomlinson and his father were descendants of those slaves.

Oliver said he couldn’t leave Tomlinson Hill, even though the idea of living in San Diego was appealing.

“It’s been too good to me,” he said of the Tomlinson Hill area. “This hill has given me everything I need. The Lord blessed me with that boy and this hill.”

LaDainian wa raised by his mother in Waco and had been estranged from his father, who reportedly left the family for long periods. However, LaDainian occasionally visited Tomlinson Hill to see family members there, including uncles, aunts and cousins.