Everyone seemed to sense something
strange in the air. The smell was even reported to have been different - a humid
tension building havoc well beyond the skyline.
The wind howled across the plains, evoking the ability to feel that something
just wasn’t quite right. The humidity rose as it tends to do in the Midwest,
creating a dewy balminess to the day.
The afternoon looked
unusual- as if looking through a yellow filter. Quiet. . . something strange and
eerie about the feelings hiding in the clouds.
 |
| Original Martin City kindergarten graduation program- May 20, 1957 Courtesy of Jay Roberts |
At the Methodist Church in Martin
City, the Boy Scouts had their weekly meeting scheduled, and kindergarten
graduation would crowd the newly-built school.
It was just another warm May day in
Ruskin Heights. Parents of small children shuffled them to and from activities.
No one could even begin to imagine what the sky had brewing amidst the
atmosphere above.
May 20th, 1957 will go down in
the history books as one of the most pivotal weather-related events in the
Kansas City metro area. Sixty years ago, residents of Ottawa, Spring Hill, Martin City, Hickman Mills and Ruskin would forever be changed.
These communities couldn’t predict
the course that would follow. Farmers, dairymen, World War II vets and their
young baby-boomer families consisting of 2.5 children, small business owners,
the elderly who had seen so much through their eyes. . . no one knew.
 |
| Mrs. Helen McKinney (1902-1990) Courtesy of Carol McKinney-Woodcox |
55 year-old Mrs. Helen McKinney, first
grade teacher at Martin City and a cherished member of the community, was more
concerned about what the humidity would do to her hair than the fragment of a
possibility that a twister would thrash its way straight through the heart of her
little city.
Jay Roberts, a freshman at Grandview
High School and Jim, his younger brother, were being wrangled up by their father to head to the kindergarten graduation at Martin City. Their little
sister was to receive her honors. Jay fought the idea of going; he had finals
to study for and begged to stay home.
Sandy, John and their
father, Allen McGee, had plans to attend the weekly Boy Scout meeting at the Martin
City Methodist Church while ten year-old Karen Ray Miller was at home with her
two younger brothers and mother at 124th and Holmes; her father
was working late.
Nearby in Ruskin Heights, 14 year-old Don Flora had plans with twin
brother Ronnie to attend a Boy Scout meeting at a neighbor’s house on the east
side of the community. Seven-year old brother Hill had informal plans to play
with the plethora of children in the neighborhood.
Author of two books on the Ruskin
Heights Tornado, Caught in the Path and Caught Ever After, Carolyn Glenn Brewer stated, “Ruskin Heights was the first
tract housing development in the Kansas City area. Most of them didn’t have
basements.”
Roy Hopkins, 11 years old and along
for the ride, was with his mother, Evelyn, and his little sister, Kate. Roy’s
younger brother had a baseball game at the elementary school and his older
sister, Sue had 8th grade graduation practice at Grandview High School.
It was a busy afternoon in May, full of indoor and outdoor activities that wouldn’t halt at the chance of a quick-passing storm. These things were common; the day would move along as planned.
 |
| The path of the Ruskin Heights Tornado. Courtesy of the National Weather Service. |
Keep in mind during this time, there
wasn’t live radar broadcast to the masses. Tornado sirens? Not in 1957.
But people did sense in their gut
that something just wasn’t right. But alas, the day would move forward with
activities that spilled into dusk.
At about 6pm, the Weather Bureau, a
precursor to what we know today as the National Weather Service, picked up
funnels and pinpointed the Kansas City area as a possible target.
Mrs. McKinney had to prepare dinner
for her husband and her visiting son and daughter-in-law. Helen raced down to
Atkinson’s Martin City Market at 135th and Holmes. She’d need to get
her groceries, return home to cook dinner, get ready and run up to the school
for the kindergarten graduation scheduled at 7:30.
 |
| One of the only photos taken in Ottawa of the twister that would become known as the "Ruskin Heights Tornado" |
Wishing to cook her visiting family
a nice dinner, Mrs. McKinney requested steaks. Unfortunately, Lowell was out and
told her the meat truck would be there the next day with fresh selections. She
opted for two slices of ham and said she would be back.
Mrs. McKinney waved goodbye to
Lowell Atkinson as she left and headed home to organize her evening. Lowell, a
big man with broad shoulders, waved and smiled as Mrs. McKinney departed.
At 6:15pm, the skies opened up and
formed a swirling tornado 63 miles southwest of the little community of Martin
City. This was the tornado that would transform hundreds of men, women and
children for the rest of their lives.
As the tornado grew in strength, it
traveled at about 42 miles per hour and hit Antioch Cemetery near Ottawa and carried headstones from their sleeping graves for several miles.
Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Marsh, 84 and 78
years old, sat down in their modest home 2.5 miles from Ottawa to eat supper. Unsuspecting of the growing severity of the situation
brewing outside, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were swept away in the winds and were the
first two victims of what would come to be known nationwide as the “Ruskin
Heights Tornado.”
Half of a letter addressed to the
first victims was found later six miles away from their leveled home.
 |
| Damage to a school bus in Martin City. Photo courtesy of Roy Hopkins. |
Reports of the tornado reached the
Kansas City metro, but no one seemed too concerned. It was 50 miles
away from Martin City and 61 miles away from Ruskin Heights. It was safe to
assume danger was far out of reach.
Activities scheduled were a go while
other residents in Martin City, Grandview, and Ruskin Heights prepared to sit
down after dinner to watch I Love Lucy
or The 64,000 Question as this twister
tore across the countryside heading northwest- a direct path to these people.
Fifteen minutes later at 6:30 p.m., the funnel was
sighted 40 miles southwest of Kansas City.
The show must go on. There were
meetings to go to, graduations to attend, dinner to cook, shows to watch, and
baseball games to play. Although the skies still seemed unsettled, the
communities of Martin City and Ruskin went about their lives with one eye at
the sky.
By 7:23pm, the twister had torn its way through just south of Olathe and northwest of Spring Hill, Ks. When it arrived
at Isham Davis’s farm, it killed him and left him in the wreckage.
 |
| A photo of the tornado taken as it hit near Ottawa, KS. |
Mrs. McGee took the warnings
seriously. Her husband, Allen and her two sons stood at the site of the path of
the tornado spotted in Kansas. She rang the Martin City Methodist Church and
urgently asked to speak to her husband.
“This tornado in Kansas is projected
to hit Martin City,” she excitedly explained.
Without much more pressing, Allen
McGee loaded his boys into the car and drove north three miles to their farm at
120th and State Line, unaware at the time that his wife had been
more than right about the projected path.
Kindergarten graduation was to start
at 7:30pm, and Jay and Jim Roberts shuffled into the Martin City school to
reluctantly see their little sister get her kindergarten diploma. Mrs. McKinney
greeted the children and families at the doors, the unsettled skies rumbling
nearer and nearer.
Just before 7:30pm, an airline pilot
reported the funnel was just two miles west of the Grandview Airport.
 |
| A view looking southeast along 135th St., the remains of Badger Lumber, the current location of the abandoned Sutherlands building in Martin City. Courtesy of Roy Hopkins |
“Pop was very fascinated by
thunderstorms. It seemed to me watching thunderstorms may have been one of his
life pleasures,” Hill Flora stated from his 7 year-old memories of that night.
“He had the garage door open and was standing just inside the door watching
these storms.”
Back in Martin City, butcher Lowell
Atkinson was sensing that there may be something to these storms. Kathy
Atkinson DenHollander, ten years old, was at home
when her father called to tell her family to
take cover. Her mother sent the children to the basement and stayed upstairs.
“She was scrubbing the floors,” Kathy recalled. “I’m assuming she was just
trying to keep busy or was in shock.”
Just northeast of Lowell Atkinson’s store
in Martin City, 57 year-old widow
Lena Smith and her 24 year-old daughter got wind of the impending storm. It had
gained power- it was larger than anyone could ever imagine in their wildest
dreams.
Mrs. McKinney, Jay and Jim Roberts
and countless other community members had noticed that the sky to
the southwest seemed green- it was far from normal. As people began to slowly
saunter into the stuffy school, things turned daunting.
 |
| The kindergarten graduates of Martin City taken prior to the tornado- May 20, 1957 Courtesy of Jay Roberts |
At 7:37pm, it became clear in Martin City the storm was a tornado- and it was a nightmare.
Helen McKinney recalled, “Just then,
Superintendent Taylor hurried to the platform and raised his hands. ‘Take your children
and go quickly to the central hall,’ he said. ‘Everyone take hold of a child if
there is one near you,’ he shouted. ‘Go
to the hall and get down on the floor!’”
 |
| Karen Ray Miller in 4th grade |
Many weren’t as lucky as the McGee’s
and had no storm shelter or basement to use as a bunker, shielding their bodies
from the sheer terror of what could be racing along the horizon.
Karen Ray Miller, her mother and two
brothers were warned by neighbor Harold Gadd at 124th and Holmes.
Harold had been at the Boy Scout meeting at the Methodist Church in Martin City
when he heard a tornado was on its way. “He came home and got his wife and all
of us and took us back to the church,” Karen recollected.
Thus, some people literally drove into
the eye of the storm without even knowing it. “We didn’t have basements,” Karen
explained.
 |
| The inside of the Martin City kindergarten graduation program Courtesy of Jay Roberts |
Chief Meteorologist Bryan Busby for
KMBC Channel 9 described the magnitude of an F-5 tornado. “Everything is
leveled down to concrete slabs and foundations. Nothing is left standing. Trees
that are still upright are debarked and road surfaces are stripped off the
streets.”
As it crushed buildings, houses, and
roadways, the twister gained strength as it engulfed the landscape. It headed in its northeasterly pattern, passing a short distance away from the kindergarten graduation.
 |
| K and K Motor Service, the Mobil Gas Station in Martin City before the tornado hit. The building was made of concrete blocks and brick. Courtesy of Dan Keister |
It’s surreal how some react in
sticky situations. There was a composed calmness at the kindergarten
graduation- as if the community had extended their arms and banded together to
barricade themselves from the unknown. Mrs. McKinney wrote, “There was no panic
really. The sudden darkness was frightening
to the small children. Some elderly
people needed to be helped. Superintendent Taylor shouted for us all to lie down
flat on the floor.”
The Martin City School was spared,
but not before the sucking power of the tornado threw some, including Jay and Jim Roberts, far down the hallway, broken glass and shaking foundations below them.
Just down the road between the
Martin City school and the Methodist Church was a Mobil gas station called “K
and K Motor Service” run by brothers Jim and Herb Keister. With the tornado
approaching, the brothers decided to make a run for it up to Jim’s home on
Cherry St. “My dad and uncle jumped in the car and just got across the railroad
crossing to turn up Cherry when they realized they were not going to make it,”
Jim Keister, son and nephew of the men recalled.
 |
| All that remained of K and K Motor Service, a Mobil Gas Station. The Keister brothers survived by holding onto a tractor inside. Courtesy of Dan Keister. |
The tornado crushed the building into unrecognizable pieces. A beam over 40 feet wide ripped off and crashed nearby.
Roy Hopkins and his family, who
resided at the house (612 E. 135th St.) next door to the Mobil
Station left the baseball game out of the tornado’s grasp fully aware of the
darkened skies near his home. Their dog, Candy had been left chained up to his
dog house in the backyard.
 |
| Damage at Roy Hopkins' house at 612 E. 135th St. in Martin City. Even though their dog was safe on the porch, the doghouse he had been chained to was never found. |
Seconds before it crossed 135th
Street and gained strength, Karen Ray Miller was pulling into the church in
Martin City. “We got out of the car and as we ran into the church, [someone]
called out to the store owner across the street to come with us to the
basement. He said he was okay and he was going to watch.”
The man that someone called out to was none other
than butcher Lowell Atkinson at the Martin City Market. Karen had barely sat
down in the basement when the tornado hit with a loud roar. “The basement
windows had been opened to equalize pressure and as I looked out, I could see
trees that looked as if they were floating in the air,” she recalled.
The tornado hit 135th and
Holmes St., slaughtering the stable buildings on the east side of the street. The original Jess and Jim's, established in 1938 as a small bar and grill, was originally where Jack Stack is today. It was caught in the tornado's fury
along with a real estate company and a grocery store.
 |
| A view looking northeast on 135th St. showing the damage to the gas station, a National Guardsman stationed nearby. Courtesy of Roy Hopkins |
One of the only remains left of Jess
and Jim’s was a pet parakeet that had miraculously survived.
The grocery store leveled just south
of the restaurant was where Lowell Atkinson had decided to stay.
At 13401 Charlotte, just behind Jess
and Jim’s at 135th and Holmes in Martin City, Lena and daughter
Margaret were literally carried away in the twister. 24 year-old Margaret was
the seventh victim of the storm, and her mother was thrown over 100 yards away
from the home and into a nearby field.
The tornado ripped through the shopping center at 111th and Blue Ridge Blvd. By 7:50pm, the tornado was at Holmes
Park at 95th and 71 Highway.
 |
| Damage in Hickman Mills. Photo courtesy of the Kansas City Times. |
Carolyn Glenn Brewer
explained that tornadoes can be eerily deceiving. “If it’s coming right at you,
you can’t tell it’s moving toward you.”
It’s hard to imagine that this
tornado was still gaining its strength. As it consumed Martin City, the tornado
grew even larger, capping out at up to ½ mile wide.
 |
| The Flora Family in winter 1956. Top Row L-R- Don, Hill Sr., Ron. Middle Row- Henrietta Bottom Row L-R- Hill, Jr., Cathy, Donna, Reba Courtesy of Don Flora |
There were no tornado sirens- no
central communication to let people know that they should take cover.
Don and twin brother, Ronnie were
rushed during their Boy Scout meeting into the basement. As the tornado
advanced toward Ruskin Heights, Don recalled, “I remember hearing a loud noise-
I came to remember it as the sound of a train.”
Don’s seven year-old brother, Hill
was home with the family at 11509 Sunnyside Drive (now Sunnyslope Drive). Hill
and his three younger sisters had settled in front of the television set to
watch I Love Lucy. His mom started to
make peanut butter fudge when the power went out around 7:15pm due to the
storms in the area.
Minutes later, a massive tornado had
scathed the side of Truman Corners shopping center and was heading toward its
deadliest intersections.
Mr. Flora was still surveying the
skies on Sunnyside Drive when Hill went out to join him. Just a short time later,
there was a loud noise off to the south- the tornado was destroying the Hickman
Mills Bank just a few blocks away.
There was little time to react. Mr.
Flora hastily pulled his car out of the garage and loaded the kids inside. He
became enraged when his wife, according to Hill, “went around the house closing
windows and the front door.”
The tornado was on their heels and
time was running short. As they raced away, Hill was watching through the back
window of their car. At the corner of 115th and 71 Hwy. (now Hickman Mills Dr.), an image of
the destruction was burned in seven year-old Hill’s memory.
 |
| Ruskin Heights had a distinct carved-out path that could be seen from the air. Courtesy of the Kansas City Star. |
“I watched as our house was picked
up and turned over and broken apart on the houses due east of our house,” Hill
recalled. “It was in slow motion. . . the back of the car felt like it was
being lifted off the ground.”
Bryan Busby looked at some of the
iconic images from the tornado damage in Martin City and Ruskin Heights. “I am
astounded at the sheer force of that tornado. It pretty much wiped total
neighborhoods off the face of the earth. It was so tough to navigate destroyed
areas, since there were no landmarks anymore.”
As the Flora Family outran the
tornado, they set out to go get the twins, Don and Ron from the Boy Scout
meeting. Retracing their route was difficult; roads, houses and signs had
been steamrolled to the ground.
Once they arrived at the house of
the Boy Scout meeting, it became clear that the twins had been brought back to
their house.
But their house didn’t exist anymore.
The twins had returned from their
Boy Scout meeting and walked down a nearly unrecognizable street. The first two
houses on either side of the street were still there. “Our house was the third
from the left. There was nothing there- nothing.” As Don and Ron gazed around
the destruction of their neighborhood, the house across the street was still
whole, but the house next to it was partially gone. Then nothing.
Nothing.
And nothing was what those boys did as they stood speechless in front of an empty lot at 11509 Sunnyside Drive.
 |
| Damage to the Ruskin Heights Shopping Center Courtesy of the Kansas City Star |
The devastation of this F5 Tornado
is hard to decipher. The memories attached to the madness it created have not
been forgotten. Researching, pulling photos, and listening to just a fragment
of the survivors has had a profound effect on me personally. . . and I wasn’t
even born yet.
When Carolyn Glenn Brewer was doing
research and interviews for her two books, she was caught by the same
revelations. “As I talked to people, it was really something to see how much
power this event had over the people that survived it.”
15 stores in the Ruskin Heights
shopping center at 110th St. were completely demolished. Over 900
businesses, homes and schools were destroyed. The most severe of the damage was
in the tract housing development, Ruskin Heights, which is where the tornado’s
namesake derives. The path carved out by the strengthened tornado went straight
through Ruskin Heights and Hickman Mills, leaving 25 dead in the community.
 |
| Damage looking west along 135th St. The current site of Jess and Jim's can be seen in the top left, a chunk of the second story destroyed. The remains of the Mobil Station can be seen in the forefront. Courtesy of Roy Hopkins |
Once the tornado headed up to the
outskirts of Lee’s Summit and hit Knobtown, it lifted and vanished into the
stirring skies above, taking four victims in Grandview and two in Knobtown.
The aftermath was simply surreal;
there was something that drew the community as a whole together, linked by the
fury that fostered from the sky.
In Martin City, the community at the
school slowly emerged from the ground and accounted for everyone. The Boy
Scouts in the area grouped together and created search teams to try to dig the
survivors from the rubble.
 |
| Elsie Gilby after the tornado where her house stood Courtesy of the Kansas City Times |
Gus’s house on Charlotte was
completely gone but he had been safe at the kindergarten graduation. He
recalled that an elderly couple's house two doors down from his house was leveled. Jack
Gilby had been bedridden and set up in a cot in his living room. His wife was sitting on a couch. In order to
protect him, his wife, Elsie threw herself on top of him. She was thrown during the
tornado; however, Mr. Gilby was left practically untouched and in tact as his entire house was stripped completely away - including the
appliances. “There wasn’t a scratch on him,” Gus recalled.
 |
| Photo looking west at the damage in Martin City, the Methodist Church one of the only surviving structures. 135th St. can be seen on the left. Holmes Rd. runs parallel in the photo. Jess & Jim's was directly across the street from the church and Atkinson's Martin City Market was just to the southeast of the church. |
Charlotte St. behind current-day
Jack Stack was hit hard. Mrs. Lena Smith was thrown 100 yards and
suffered a severe fracture to her head- but she was still alive and transported
to Menorah Hospital. Her daughter, Margaret didn’t make it.
Dusk had settled on the horizon; the
light was fading as people emerged from their hiding spots. The National Guard
was called out to the area to keep looters out. They set up large lighting so
that search and rescue efforts could continue.
 |
| Jay and Jim Roberts' house on 135th St. after the tornado. The house was structurally unsound and they moved shortly after the tornado. |
15 year-old Jay Roberts joined a
group of the Boy Scouts to look for survivors. They headed to the area where
Atkinson’s Martin City Market was and searched within the debris. Jay recalled, “My group
was the one that discovered the body of the grocery store worker that was
found crushed between tons of canned goods and debris.”
This image is burned into the memory
of Jay at 15 years old and even now. Lowell Atkinson had died in midst of the
tornado, his resting place being the remains of the store he had worked so hard
to build.
Railroad cars weighing tons were turned over, and a
Pontiac was found, wrapped bumper to bumper, twisted around a tree. Other
vehicles rested in the middle of fields next to dislodged bathtubs. Debris from neighboring houses and
businesses spread far and wide.
Ruskin High School took a brunt of
the damage in the area, an iconic symbol of the strength of this F-5 tornado
that swept its fury across southern Jackson County. The school was
leveled, and the only recognizable structure still standing were the curved
beams of the gymnasium. The Ruskin Heights Presbyterian Church was stripped all
the way down to its foundation.
 |
| The tornado had a sense of humor; the only letters remaining spelled out "RUIN" in place of "Ruskin." Photo courtesy of the Jackson County Advocate. |
The aftermath of this F-5 tornado is
hard to imagine even today. The tornado was on the ground for a whopping 71 miles and 1 hour 38 minutes. 40 were dead and 531 were injured. The wounded all crowded two area hospitals, some being brought in on top of
doors since stretchers were limited. Many people in Martin City didn’t have
home insurance since their families had owned property for generations.
In Martin City, many lives were
spared since so many people in the community were gathered at events at the
church and the school. “I am so thankful that so many of the local townspeople
were supporting the new graduates at the schoolhouse. The loss of life and
property could have been much worse,” Jay Roberts stated.
 |
| Damage of Ruskin High School, courtesy of the Kansas City Star. |
He’s right; had there not been two
large functions going on in town and if Jess and Jim’s had been open on that Monday,
the list of casualties would be much, much longer.
Roy Hopkins and his family returned from Grandview to Martin City unsure of what would be remaining. Miraculously,
their two story white frame house was still in-tact and their dog Candy was
waiting for them on the front porch.
But directly next door, steps away from their home, the brick and cement-block Mobil Station run by the Keister brothers was completely destroyed.
Hill Flora remembers all the odd
things he witnessed in the days following the Ruskin Heights tornado that took
his home. “Black top streets were torn up by the wind. Where our house had been
the yard was almost completely clear of debris, but the next yard over was
knee-deep in trash,” Hill recalled. “It was simply incredible.”
Debris, including letters from
Hickman Mills, Ruskin Heights and Martin City, were found in the Richmond,
Mo. area 60+ miles away.
There were many lessons learned
amidst the chaos. Why were all the victims taken to only two hospitals,
Richards-Gebaur and Menorah? What could be done to prevent this mass devastation
in the future?
Immediately following the Ruskin
Heights tornado, alert systems were put into place throughout the country.
The Civil Defense system that had been installed in major cities to warn
of a nuclear attack during the Cold War would also be used to alert people of a
tornado warning. Carolyn Glenn Brewer said, “Boy, after the tornado, politicians made
sure that we had warning systems in place by the next spring.”
Bryan Busby explained that technology is always advancing and is far superior today. “We always go
back and look at the job we did in warning- what we did well, what we could
improve. We all learned from that tornado,” he stated.
Days and even weeks after the
tornado crushed the community, another issue that emerged were the sightseers
from the area. People from the Kansas City metro were all-too-curious. Many would corral
their families and take a drive into the destruction.
 |
| Oran Lawrence of Martin City surveying the damage of his home that was destroyed on 135th and Oak St. He suffered a head injury. Courtesy of the Kansas City Times |
The following Sunday, only 6 days
after the tornado, survivors rallied together at the Ruskin Heights Presbyterian Church
where only the foundation remained. Over 300 people were in attendance, and the
Elks Lodge gave out clothes so people could “dress up” for services. At Martin
City Methodist Church, people gathered to say goodbye to their beloved church,
battered and beaten in the tornado’s fury.
The church in Martin City, erected in 1890, had been
hit by a tornado in 1947 and suffered from a fire in August 1956. This tornado ravaged
the building beyond repair, sagging rooflines and broken
windows convincing the community it was time to move forward. The church was
razed a week later and rebuilt to be the structure that still stands today (now home of The
Martin Event Space).
Could the community rebuild? The short answer is yes- but it would take dedication and the tenacity of these survivors. Martin City, prior to the tornado, had signs entering the small town that read, "Welcome to Martin City, Missouri: a Growing Community." After the tornado, those signs were ironically ripped apart.
 |
| Jess and Jim's advertisement in the Kansas City Star announcing their reopening at their current location, 517 E. 135th St. |
In August of 1957, the final victim
passed away from her injuries. It was none other than 57 year-old Lena Smith
who had been thrown from her house on Charlotte St. in Martin City.
The tornado was the largest and most
destructive of all the 300+ tornados reported at the National Weather Service
since 1950 in Missouri. That was until the E-F5 Joplin tornado struck on May
22nd, 2011 and killed 158 people.
Carolyn Glenn Brewer had written one
book documenting the stories of survival called Caught in the Path. As time went on, she realized there were
countless other victims- part of the baby boomer era- who were begging
to be heard. “I wrote Caught Ever After when
I realized that so many of the children, including me, had a story to tell.
This was burned into our memory.”
Years of silence had these children
of the tornado asking questions and sharing stories. At the 50th
reunion in 2007, they gathered together and reunited with one large thing
in common.
They had all survived the Ruskin
Heights Tornado.
And so this tornado, 60 years later,
still casts a shadow on the survivors. Some are out still searching for answers
to those minutes of hell while others find comfort in sharing their memories of
that fateful day. Kathy Atkinson DenHollander lost her father, the Martin City butcher
Lowell Atkinson, who she remembers loved ice cream and gave great hugs. She tries to find the positive in the situation that fragmented
the world around her. “I was really lucky I had a really great dad for ten
years,” Kathy fondly uttered. “Some people don’t even get that.”
Six decades later, we must learn
from this story and remember the tragedy and the unimaginable courage of a community. Their stories give us
strength and hope amongst some of the darkest hours the area has ever seen.
In order to be resilient one must first survive. And thousands of survivors still
remember May 20th, 1957 as a moment caught in the winds of time.
* This story couldn't have been possible without all the people who offered their unique stories. A special thanks to Bryan Busby and Carolyn Glenn Brewer, author of Caught in the Path and Caught Ever After. To purchase her books, go to http://carolynglennbrewer.com.
If you enjoyed this piece, consider LIKING my page on Facebook so you don't miss my writing! Click here!Listen to my 30 minute podcast through 610 Sports with Bob Fescoe about this event and how it forever changed my writing and perspective. This podcast is FREE and can be downloaded and listened to anywhere! Click here!
This piece is dedicated to the victims of the 1957 Ruskin Heights Tornado and all the survivors of this event.
Amma Marsh, 78
James A. "Bert" Marsh, 84
Isham Davis,34
Barbara Davis,31
Pamela Davis, 7
Tamara Davis, 5
Lowell Atkinson, 43
Margaret Erline Smith, 24
Lena Smith, 57
Joseph Vinckier,78
Randall Magill, 3 months
Edward S. Henton, 50
Bessie Knorpp Smith, 50
Maybelle Gabbert, 73
Harry Gabbert, 71
Gladys Erwin, 54
Linda Sue Stewart, 3 months
Goldie Marie Taylor, 49
Carolyn Kay Taylor, 3
Cornelia Davis, 25
Kathryn Sue Davis, 7
Margery Wackernagle Hower, 31
Oral Glenn Hower, 35
John Hower, 9
Lena B. Rucker, 39
Garold Rucker, 41
Dorothy Lavonne Leopold, 31
Harold Keith Leopold, 11
Charles L. Johnston, 36
Catherine Armon, 31
Alta D. Guyll, 41
George L. Kildow, 45
Robert W. Yost, Jr., 9
Diane Marie Rossi, 7
Hester Timm, 38
Carolyn Denise Woodling, 3
Maxine Nehring, 30
Jeanette Dorris, 79
Arthur Frechette, 80
Charles C. Thompson,50
