kilgore news herald blue moon special section for tpa bnc

POST GRADUATESPauline BarrettJoe GordonPhilo StephensHoward Stone

SENIORSMurvin BartonElvin BlackfordNaoma BuntingForrest CokerHelen ColeAlice DorseyJack FentressAlvin GerdesPaul GreerIrma HodgesMelba HughesWilliam KetchumW.D. Latham Jr.Anna LechtenbergJ.E. MaddryJack McGovneyJames McGovneyLouise MaxwellOrrin NewellVester NortonRuby ReedCharles RiderLouise RowellRobert SalleeHelen Smoot

JUNIORSVirginia BlantonChloe CarrJuanita ElrodDoris EtheredgeEmma HallArliss MiddletonSebe Miller Jr.Annie MilsteadBilly RobertsThomas RogersSambo ShawAbner SmithWilliam SowellCarl StaggsMary WalkerAubry Williams

SOPHOMORESBoyd AbercrombieBobbie BrownJames DuncanAllen GerdesCharles Hasbrook Jr.Yvonne HathawayHelen JonesHomer LathamAubry NethertonLewis PayneEloise PowellAubra Rainwater EIGHTH GRADEBetty AppleMargaret BaucumOwen ByromAnnie CrimArdyth DavidsonJoseph DavidsonMary FormanTom GuinnNorris HaleGraham HensonFlorence LeeMary LloydDoris MeltonMarion MoteJohn NailBetty Norton

Charles OÕNealAnna PurcellEvelyn RainwaterDelores RayDorothy RichardsonMarvin ShawAnna SmootHenry SteeleLawrence SwiftMarjorie ThiebaudRose Van HaverbekeMary VinesHerman WalkerS. Jack WarthanDoris Wyche

SEVENTH GRADELillian AndersonEdward Barrett Jr.Laverne BartonGeorge BonnerMary CarneyMary ClarkCharles Collins Jr.Helen DavidsonVera (Sue) DuncanJohn FordCarl Frey Jr.Marcelyn GipsonHarvey GriggHelen HarrelsonMary HootenHubert HudsonGeneva JollyRachel KnottsHelen LechtenbergMary LehewDoris ManckBlondell MaxwellVirgil PhillipsCurtis ReamsWillie Ruth RobertsRobert SalyerDavid ScottEarl ScottSam Smith Jr.Marshall StarksDoris WellsDorothy White

SIXTH GRADEEvelyn AdamsAllene AndersonBetty BensonNellene BishopOneita BonnerHenry BowlinSybil BradenElaine BrownMurray ChoateMildred ClairJimmie CrumbleyMarcella CumminsZana CurryJane DamuthAnnie DavidsonDorothy DearingTravis DialWanda DickensonWinnifred DrakeForrest EakesJames FealyG.W. GipsonR.A. Goff Jr.Betty GordonHarun GunnCarl Hamilton Jr.Francis HankinsLaneta HardieCoy Harrelson Jr.Mary HerringtonJuanita Herron

Earnestine HogueMargretta HogueBetty HolleymanJessie HoltMartha HouserElisha HudsonRuby HuntCharles JonesFedelia JonesMaudine KellyErnest KnipeBobby KraussRobert LambertArzell LloydVirginia LoeIda MaddryLouise MartinCharles MaxwellVincent McClureLanny McCuneW.C. McLawchlinDessie MooreBillie MorefieldPatty MoteMarjorie MyersShirley MyersForrest PersonJames Ray PettyRoseann PhillipsHazel PiersonOla PlattEdna PowellGabe Ragsdale Jr.James RhodesBetty RiderHolten RobertsR.B. RobertsAnna RogersEsther RuckerDorothy ShawRobert ShoemakerSammie ShoemateIva SmithMattie SmithGeraldine Stearns A.W. StubblefieldGlyndell SutherlinJames Tatum Jr.Charles Ray TaylorWalter ThompsonAnna WaggonerFlorine WarrenMary WebbMary WillisThomas Woolley

FIFTH GRADEAlmita AllmonWayne ArnoldArden BarberOllie BarberDonald BarrettMary BennettJohn Blackerby Jr.John BuzbeeWilliam ChildressByron CloverKenneth CorriePerry CoxJaqueline CuvelierBetty June DavisKenneth DavisEthel DorseyHolly EllisonEdwin ElrodGeorge EmberlingWanda EmberlingMary FordEmaloyd FrancisMargine FrancisMyrtle FreemanMartha Gandy

Oscar Hall Jr.Martha HargisJames HarrisBetty HerringtonBetty HodgesBessie HollandImogene HouserLaura HouserCharles HuntMaxine JacobsKenneth JohnsonClaudell KilgoreMary KingJohn Lumpkin Jr.Evelyn MayhewRobert McChesneyShirley McQuaidWilliam Meador Jr.Carroll MillerSarah MillsAlma MondayJackie NewnhamRaymond OÕNealJoyce PayneEdna PeaceTwillia PhillipsL. Garland PrideHelen RainwaterNorma RobertsInda SevensBobbie Jean SmithRuth SmithMildred ThompsonBilly TippAnnie WalkerAmmie WatkinsDoris Williams Erma WilliamsBernise WomackGlenn WoodDale YorkMozell Young

VISITORSEddie GauthreauxBilly MoreJames PhillipsEuda Walker

FACULTY AND STAFFRuth ArnoldNellie BarnesLaura BellLemmie ButlerEmma GoreMasel HannaLena HuntMary NealJohnnie Marie NelsonMarie PattersonMattie Queen PriceJohn PropesWillie TateLizzie ThompsonLouis WallerKatie Watson

(List of namesprovided by theLondon Museum)

Remembering the victims of theLondon School Explosion

Gone but not forgotten

March 18, 1937

Since the victims are all buried in places otherthan the explosion site, "Cenotaph," a Greek word meaning "empty tomb," is appropriately given to this monument. The sculptural block of Texasgranite depicts 12 life-size figures, representingchildren coming to school, bringing gifts and hand-ing in homework to two teachers. The massivegranite block weighs 20 tons and is seven feet high and four feet thick. It is supported by two monolithic granite columns with fluted sides. These 20 feet high columns rise from a granite platform which is reached on two sides by granite steps. Overall the cenotaph monument is 32 feet high. The names of the victims are carved into the base.

75th Anniversary Special EditionMarch 17, 2012

Kilgore News Herald

LONDON SCHOOL EXPLOSION KILGORE NEWS HERALD

The London Museum and Tea Room has two new books for sale whose authors will be in town for the 75th anniversary of the school explosion.

A book signing for “Gone at 3:17” by David M. Brown and Michael Weres-chagin is set for 2-3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17, at the museum.

Brown, accompanied by explosion survivor Jimmie Jordan Robin-son, will also sign books in the lobby of Trinity Mother Fran-ces Hospital in Tyler on March 19. Brown’s book chronicles the school explosion and also TMF’s role in treating the injured.

A book signing for “My Boys and Girls are in There” by Ron Rozelle is

scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon Sunday, March 18, at the museum.

New books recall school tragedyAuthors to sign works at museum, TMF hospital

‘Gone at 3:17,’ 328pages, Potomac Books‘My Boys and Girls Are in There,’ 184 pages, Texas A&M Press

New London School

March 18, 1937

Let the Memory of

Loved Ones Lost

never be forgotten and the

West Rusk School System

continue to grow in their Memory

GRIFFIN RANCH, LLC7151 FM 349 Kilgore, Texas Cattle Operation Timber & Wildlife Management

KILGORE NEWS HERALD LONDON SCHOOL EXPLOSION PAGE 3

By Charlotte HeldenbrandSpecial to the News Herald

For the Sunday, March 18, memorial service, photos and names of the hundreds of victims of the London School explosion will be on a PowerPoint in the West Rusk High School auditorium.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. with bagpiper Dan Shannon playing “Flowers in the Forest” and then “Wings” for the processional. Terry Dorsey will play the National Anthem on the trumpet.

Miles Toler, director of the London Museum, will give the welcome and special recognition. Featured speaker will be Eric Holleyman, PhD, whose aunt, Betty Kath-ryn Holleyman, was killed as a sixth-grader in the explo-sion. His father, Max Holleyman, is a survivor of the explosion.

The victims’ names will be read prior to the attendees’ singing of “Holy Ground.” The bagpiper will play the recessional, “Going Home,” and the crowd will gather at the cenotaph for a 21-gun salute. Shannon will then play “Amazing Grace.”

Memorial serviceSunday at school

Museum a vital legacy to the pastBy Charlotte Heldenbrand

Special to the News Herald

NEW LONDON - Miles Toler, a 1958 graduate of London High School who has served as director of the London Museum since 2005, remains awed by the chronology of events which followed the worst school disaster in the nation 75 years ago at his alma mater. A gas leak at LHS ignited by a spark claimed around 300 lives — mostly children — spurring the Texas Leg-islature to add an odorant to natu-ral gas to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

“The thing that has always amazed me is the school blows up

in ‘37, the Mommies and Daddies grieve as long as they can, they (ex-students) start having reunions in ‘77 and then the museum started in ‘97 for the reunion. And people gave us items for it: they still had them,” Toler said.

The rescue efforts of March 18 and the days following the explo-sion, when tons of brick, concrete and steel were cleared from the campus, still inspires people today. “The real puzzler is there wasn’t a hired hand in any of it - it was all volunteer,” he said.

Toler provided the mission state-ment of the museum by quoting survivor John Fuhr, “ ‘No one is dead, truly dead, until no one re-

members them and no one speaks their name.’ He said that at the 50th anniversary (in 1987). There was a pause after he said that, then he said, ‘And that’s what we’re do-ing; we’re remembering them.’ ”

Honoring those who perished re-mains a calling for Toler and all the other volunteers who keep the Lon-don Museum and Tea Room in op-eration. “Those of us who didn’t lose someone (in the school explo-sion) were cheated. It wasn’t record-ed in a book. It’s a tragedy, a story that needs to be told. And now you can smell natural gas. We’ve had plumbers tell us when they go through their training that this sto-

“No one is dead, truly dead, until no one remembers them and no one speaks their name.” -- John Fuhr

See MUSEUM, Page 11

NEW LONDON, 1937

We helped eachother on that tragic day. May we always remember our loss.Let us keep our faith for tomorrow.

Kay Myers, Terminal [email protected]

Fax: 903-986-1996Local: 903-986-2905

1-877-4105

ragedies do not define

the community,

but the response and

remembrance is the

measure of a community.

MICHEAL E.JIMERSONCounty Attorney

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Micheal Jimerson,P.O. Box 1525, Henderson, Texas 75653

T

RE-ELECT


A survivor and a rescue workershare their firsthand experiences75 YEARS LATER

Oilfield worker responds to crisis

“It was a terrIble thIng. I remember thInkIng It was a dream;

It dId not seem real. I’ll never forget.” -- marvIn dees

Myers grieves for lost brother, draws comfort from reunions


Losing her only brother in the London School explosion grieves Bobbie Kate Myers to this day, but the tragedy does not prevent her keeping in touch with former classmates.

In fact, their shared sorrow bound to-gether the students who survived the horrific explosion which took around 300 lives 75 years ago this month.

“There was 14 members of our class that lost a family member in the explo-sion; that keeps us closer as classmates. It keeps the wheels turning for me because I look forward to our reunions,” she said.

Myers was 7 years old and in the sec-ond grade when her 10-year-old brother Perry Lee Cox, a fifth grader, encouraged her to tell the bus driver they were not going to school the morning of March 18, 1937. The county meet - which to-day is called UIL competition - was scheduled that day as well as Friday.

“My brother didn’t really want to go to school that day because with the county meet we would only be going for half a day. When my Daddy got back from town, he drove us to school,” she said. “My Daddy lived until 1971, but my

Daddy died of a broken heart. He felt guilty for making us go to school. Two years after the school explosion, Mother and Daddy got divorced.”

In the days prior to the explosion many of the children had told of experiencing headaches and watering eyes. After the tragedy, the community realized these symptoms were from the natural gas leak under the school building.

“My brother did complain. He came home from school the days before the ex-plosion complaining of a headache with his eyes red from the burning gas,” Myers said. “They couldn’t smell it so no one knew about the gas leak. With the odor-ant they’ve added to it, you can’t miss it now.

“My Daddy lived out the rest of his life grieving. Back then, we didn’t know what psychiatry was; they didn’t have anybody go out to counsel anyone. Today, that’s the first thing they do.”

Not only did Mr. Cox take on the re-sponsibility for making his children go to school that day, he also regretted trans-ferring them into the London School District. That was their first year in the school. Prior to that, they attended Grand View, a rural campus outside

Bobbie Kate Myers points out a display of her brother in the musuem.

See MYERS, Page 5


Marvin Dees, 96, may be the only re-maining rescue worker who volunteered at the scene of the nation’s worst school disaster 75 years ago in New London.

When the London School blew up, many oil field hands such as Dees and his co-workers with The Texas Company figured it was a boiler.

“We heard a ka-bloom! We wondered what it was. It wasn’t long before we were told it was the school and they needed as much help as they could get to recover bodies,” he said.

Driving from the job site five miles away on Hwy 42, Dees figures they ar-

rived within a half hour of the blast. The volunteers were stunned when they ar-rived on the scene.

“It was like an ant hill, there was so much going on. We were using our hands, shovels, picks and axes,” he said. “We had to remove a lot of material. There was a lot of cutting torches being used to cut the beams so we could attach the winch lines to pull them out.

“We had to dig down until we got to the ground floor. I didn’t actually help pull out the teacher, but I was right there. As I remember, it was the wee hours. We had to cut through the ceiling and floor and another layer to find her. She was folded over a desk and her head was

See DEES, Page 5


Henderson. “Perry Lee was down in that worst part of

the building. There was only three survivors in his fifth grade class: two boys and one girl,” Myers said. “I asked my teacher if I could go spend the last 10 minutes of the day with my brother so I could catch the bus with him. I was walking in front of the cafeteria when the building exploded in front of me. In a few more minutes I would have been in there.

“My parents didn’t know if I was in there because my teacher told them that I was go-ing to Perry Lee’s classroom. When I got over seeing it happen, I just knew some-thing bad had happened but didn’t under-stand. A neighbor took me home.”

After both her parents frantically searched the campus for her, someone told them Bobbie Kate had gone home with a neigh-bor. Once they picked her up, they returned to the site to wait two or three hours for word of Perry Lee’s fate.

“My brother was thrown hundreds of feet from the building and a man delivering bread picked him and some other children up and took them to Dr. Tubbs in Arp. His office was over the drugstore,” she said.

Mrs. Cox had originally hitched a ride to the blast site with Ted Hudson, who had recently opened a radio station in Hender-

son. He set up his equipment and did a ra-dio broadcast to describe the physical char-acteristics and clothing of victims and their locations so worried families could go to their bedsides.

Friends of the Cox family heard Hudson say a little boy in khaki clothing with a red knife in his pocket was in Arp. “We didn’t find my brother until 8 o’clock that night. The way my brother was identified was a pearl-handled pocket knife that he had painted with our Mother’s red fingernail polish. We got to spend two hours with him before he died. He never regained con-sciousness but he kept crying out for Moth-er,” she said.

In addition to losing a son, the Cox fam-ily lost nieces and nephews and attended those funerals as well as services for friends’ children day after day.

“The Stamps Quartet sang at my broth-er’s funeral at Grand View Baptist Church,” Myers said. “He’s buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery. My parents are buried on either side of Perry Lee. Even though they were divorced, they became the sweetest of friends.”

Myers, who later married her London High School sweetheart, Robert Myers, had two sons and a grandson attend the same school they did.

She occasionally visits the London Tea Room across from the school campus and made a thrilling discovery there. Marveling at the divine timing, Myers became ac-quainted with the only girl classmate of Perry’s to survive the incident. About a year ago, she happened to be at the London Mu-seum and Tea Room and overheard a wom-an talking about attending the school.

When Myers asked her about that, she told her she was in Miss Lena Hunt’s fifth grade class. “Her parents moved the family immediately and a lot of the records were

destroyed in the explosion so we never knew who the girl was,” Myers said. Gloria Hen-son now lives in West Virginia and she and Myers talk on the telephone periodically.

“She lay in the rubble for six hours that day. When they got her out, she stayed in the hospital for several days,” Myers said. “She remembered my brother: what he looked like. He was a cute boy and she said he was always a jolly kid playing jokes like kids do.”

The Coxes owned a small grocery store and gas station and Perry Lee, after he ate the gum or candy, would sometimes pull a prank on classmates.

“He would save wrappers and fold it back to look new. She said he gave it to her and she was so thrilled he had given her some gum. And of course it was an empty wrap-per,” Myers said with a smile.

Those kind of memories lessen the sor-row of the survivors, according to Myers. “The next school year, my Mother and Daddy didn’t have the heart to send me back to school here. I stayed in Grand View for one semester. I begged Mother and Daddy to let me come back here because I had so many friends in New London. Growing up, I was so proud to tell people, ‘I go to New London School.’ We’ve always had a good school here.”

crushed.”In order to continue with the effort and

not be overcome by the horror of it, Dees tried to focus on just the building materi-als they were moving. “Out of the corner of your eye you’d see things, but you didn’t stop what you were doing because so much was going on. A man with a truck full of bushel baskets stopped, so we formed two lines. We’d pass the bas-kets to the people closest to the debris, they’d fill it up and pass it to the other line of people who would pass the basket to the perimeter and empty it.”

In addition to the death scenes con-stantly being replayed, the crowd and ac-companying hysteria among parents searching for their children wore on the volunteers. “It was a terrible thing. I re-member thinking it was a dream; it did not seem real. I’ll never forget,” Dees said.

When he went home, his wife Floy wanted to fix her husband of two years

something to eat but he was unable to face a meal. “I didn’t feel like eating for days,” he said. “I couldn’t help but re-member what I had seen. I would wake up thinking about it. The other men with me said the same thing. It took us a while to get over it.”

Dees knew Elbert Box, the only survi-vor to lose a limb in the wake of the ex-plosion. Box’s father worked for The Texas Company (which later became Texaco).

Dees retired in 1979 after 45 years with the company. Although he is proud of earning his engineering degree from Tu-lane University on the G.I. Bill, Dees downplays the work he did at the scene of the school explosion. He is mentioned in two new books on the tragedy and said “Oh, I have no idea” how many times he has been interviewed for newspaper, tele-vision or radio stories on the tragedy.

DEES n From Page 4

MYERS n From Page 4

Joan Hallmark interviews Marvin Dees, an oil field worker who helped in the rescue effort following the London school explosion.

Bobbie Kate Myers’ brother Perry Lee Cox was missing for some time after the explosion; the family lat-er found he had been taken to Arp. He was identified by his pearl-handled pocket knife.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Red Cross released this “official re-port of relief activities” in Sep-tember 1937 describing the or-ganization’s efforts to aid the community after the school ex-plosion.

At three o’clock on the after-noon of March 18, 1937, a gong in the New London, Texas high school building sounded a call for class elections. Primary classes, conducted in a nearby building, had been dismissed for the day.

In the school gymnasium, lo-cated directly behind the main building, a large group of mothers were in attendance at a Parent-Teachers’ Association meeting. The sky overhead was balmy. It was a beautiful and typical spring day in Texas.

From oil wells for miles around, wealth was flowing out of a gener-ous earth. Seven wells stood on the school grounds - their tall der-ricks in themselves being explana-tion of how a splendidly equipped school plant, with landscaped and well-groomed grounds, was to be found in such a rural school com-munity. The New London school had “struck it rich.”

At eight minutes past three o’clock that afternoon, teachers were preparing slips to pass around to their classes for ballots. Eager anticipation and the excite-ment that goes with school elec-tions permeated the atmosphere of those classrooms.

But at that moment, without a suspicion of warning, the roof and the floors of the school blew sky-ward, the walls collapsed, a terrify-ing roar filled the air, and one of the most appalling tragedies of the century had occurred.

A few brief moments later newspaper extras were on the streets in many cities. Radio sta-tions from New York City to San Francisco interrupted their pro-grams for the appalling announce-ment: “Hundreds of children in Texas school killed when building explodes. Death toll unknown.”

News of the explosion traveled quickly. Within a few hours after the dreadful happening, the Rusk County and nearby Texas chap-ters of the Red Cross were in ac-

tion rounding up doctors and medical supplies, and in dispatch-ing assistance to the scene.

From Little Rock, Ark., where he had been directing flood relief work, the Red Cross dispatched in a relief director trained through long years of experience in bring-ing order out of chaos.

From Washington, the medical director for the National Red Cross rushed to the little Texas community by airplane.

FDR ORDERS AIDAnd from Warm Springs, Ga.,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the following message to Ad-miral Cary T. Grayson, Red Cross chairman:

“In the great disaster which has come to New London, Texas, I know the Red Cross will do every-thing possible. You have my au-thority to call on every agency of the Government to aid.”

Death or injury claimed a ma-jority of those who were in the building. As the debris was re-moved occasional victims would be found alive, pinned under the wreckage, and these were given first aid by Red Cross doctors and nurses and rushed to nearby hos-pitals.

Red Cross records reveal that a total of 85 patients were hospital-

ized as a result of the explosion - four of these being workmen in-jured while removing debris. To care for these patients 50 Red Cross nurses were made available, and these loyal workers remained on duty for many days following the actual disaster, assisting regular hospital personnel that had been heavily overtaxed, making calls on patients remaining in their homes, and otherwise assisting the fami-lies who were suffering from se-vere shock regardless of the extent of their injuries.

ONE PHONEIN TOWN

Only one telephone line con-nected this community with the outside world. Over this thin strand of wire went calls to nearby towns and cities for equipment and man-power for removing the twisted piles of concrete, stone and steel framework covering the bodies of the dead and the in-jured.

Almost before the dust from the explosion had cleared away workers from nearby oil fields

were frantically digging in the ru-ins, all too often removing bodies from which the breath of life had been extinguished. The cries of those injured and of those search-ing for their children, their broth-ers or sisters were mingled in the confusion.

While the rigs of hundreds of oil wells over the surrounding country were hurriedly being shut down as their crews rushed to help, mothers who a few brief moments before had been dis-cussing routine problems in the Parent-Teachers’ Association meeting were now crowding over the wreckage in hopeless quest for that which they dreaded to find.

Texas Rangers patrolling that region were early on hand to assist in the organization of first rescue efforts. Before many hours had passed Red Cross chapters from nearby towns and cities were dis-patching doctors, nurses, first-aid personnel, and supplies to the scene, there to work at top speed with representatives of many agencies, the American Legion, Salvation Army, U.S. Army offi-cials, as well as the oil operators and their employees.

Throughout that first night a constant whine of sirens along the roads traced the removal of dead and injured to mortuaries and hospital of nearby towns. High-ways were kept open by state pa-trolmen, while at the same time the weary task of removing vic-tims and establishing their identi-fication was accompanied by a great hush that covered the entire countryside.

For many hours the toll of dead and injured was unknown. Later a board of inquiry found the explo-sion was cause by an accumula-tion of leaking gas in the building.

STUNNEDCOMMUNITY

Under the blinding glare of

countless searchlights the comb-ing of the debris was carried out in 24 hours. Perhaps for the first time in a disaster, emergency work was directed in part by bulletins from a radio station which erected temporary microphones at the scene to call for lighting equip-ment, medical supplies, and man-power, as well as for broadcasting descriptions of unidentified dead and the locations of morgues where unknown bodies had been taken.

When the final count was made the known dead had mounted to 297* students and members of the faculty of the New London School, including those who died as a result of inju-ries sustained.

The stunned community went about the sad task of burial ac-companied by an air of bewilder-ment. Grave after grave appeared in the cemeteries of the surround-ing country, with sorrowful neigh-bors and outsiders as well lending all possible aid to the bereaved families. Two mass funerals were held when many burials took

place simultaneously. In many in-stances more than one funeral procession started from the same house.

Red Cross nurses, sent into the community by chapters in nearby towns as well as by the national organization, found themselves called upon for unusual duties. So prostrated with grief were many of the parents and relatives or friends of the victims that nurses were frequently requested to ac-company funeral processions to the grave, there to administer what aid they could under in-tensely emotional conditions. Nursing was also made available to families before and after funer-als to assist them in handling dif-ficult family problems.

A RED CROSSOF CARNATIONS

On Easter Sunday following the disaster a memorial service was held at New London for those children and teachers whose lives were so suddenly lost in this tragedy. The members of the Ju-nior Red Cross sent a floral offer-ing of red and white carnations in the form of a huge red cross. A

survivor of the explosion, sad-dened by the loss of a brother and many friends in the disaster, brought a great feeling of sympa-thy sweeping anew over the vast audience when he acknowledged the floral tribute:

“As one of the survivors of the school explosion, and in behalf of all our departed classmates, I want to express our deepest gratitude to the school children of America for the magnificent cross of red carna-tions on a field of white here to-day,” he said. “This floral tribute to our comrades was made possi-ble by the National Children’s Fund of the Junior Red Cross. This comforting expression of sympathy instills within each of our hearts a new hope, a greater faith, and a realization that we must, for their sakes, carry on.”

(*Estimates of the final death toll have varied over the years)

PAGE 6 LONDON SCHOOL EXPLOSION KILGORE NEWS HERALD KILGORE NEWS HERALD LONDON SCHOOL EXPLOSION PAGE 7

MARCH 18, 1937 ...

Nurses attend an injured child.

A large crowd gathers after the explosion. Above right, workers search the ruins for victims. The cause of the explosion was an undetected natural gas leak. This event inspired the addition of an odorant to gas.

Two Boy Scouts rest af-ter helping at the site. More than 600 scouts from other towns came to assist.

A large piece of cement was thrown onto a car.

Tragic school explosion stuns world and devastates local community;sympathy and support pour in from near and far

Adolf Hitler sent a telegram of sympathy.

IN LOVING MEMORYof Dorothy Richardsonand all the other lives lost at London School

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Editor's Note: Reporters report the news. It is rare to have a report-er become part of the story. Both that was the case back in 1937 when Overton reporter Queen Price fell victim to the London School explosion.

QUEEN PRICEGRAHAM - Funeral services

were held 3 p.m. Saturday at Gra-ham for Mattie Queen Price, music and expression teacher at London who was a victim of last week’s trag-ic explosion which caused the death of around 300 students and teach-ers.

Miss Price also taught private music lessons in the Overton schools and had served as society editor of The Overton Press for more than a year. She turned in the copy for her column just hours be-fore her death.

Born Nov. 6, 1910, in Graham, she graduated from Graham High School with the Class of 1926, tak-ing one year of post-graduate work there. She then enrolled at Kidd-Key College at Sherman, where she graduated in 1929. In her senior year she was named the most repre-sentative girl, sweetest girl, presi-dent of the student body and se-nior class.

Miss Price entered Northwestern University, where she studied mu-sic before attending the Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

While living in Overton she made many friends. She had a lov-ing and kind disposition which caused those who came into con-tact with her to love her.

Those left to mourn her passing are her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nat Price; three brothers, Robert Lee Price, a student at Baylor Universi-

ty; W.W. Price of Olney; and Bud Price of Dallas, former secretary of the Overton Chamber of Com-merce; and a host of friends.

2012 EDITOR’S NOTE: The Overton Garden Club is named in memory of Queen Price and remains active in the community.

God pity them! God comfort them! A nation is lifting as one voice a prayer to Thee,For those our neighbors, weeping for their children-You know, dear Lord, their grief, their agony.Be with them closer today than their own breathing.Hold their inert hands, walk by their side.Surely your heart is breaking with their sorrow.You, who watched your own Son crucified.

Into their darkness bring some light to cheer them.Tell them of heavenly fields where children playThrough with the hurt and the strife of life forever.Tell them their children are happy, Lord, today.Fill their lonely hours some way, dear Master,Let them sleep again-bid weeping cease,Make time with its kind hand reach out and heal them,Restoring their laughter to them-and their peace.

(Written for the New London communityby Grace Noll Crowell,Poet Laureate of Texas, 1936-39)

Of the 33 members of a Boy Scout troop active at London, 21 will never again don the uniform which they had so proudly worn as they attended Scout meetings, camps, did special patrol duty, or been of service in so many ways that we have come to depend on them, for a score and one an-swered final roll call when the London school was blown to bits Thursday afternoon. Of this troop only five escaped uninjured, seven injured and the rest – they’ve gone on.

The list of Thursday’s Boy Scout dead in the horrific ho-locaust include: Calvin Cor-ree, William Ketchum, Hom-er Latham, W. D. Latham, Ralph Layman, Seeb Miller, Marion Mote, Orin Newell, Robert Salee, Philo Stephens,

A. D. Thomas, Aubrey Wil-liams, Boyd Abercrombie, Al-ton Braden, Owen Byrom, Jack Fentress, Allen Gerdes, Joe Gordon, Graham Henson, Hubert Hudson, Lawrence Swift.

Despite their bereavement some 620 Scouts summoned from Longview, Gladewater, Tyler, Marshall, Kilgore, Hen-derson, Arp, Joinerville, and Carlisle lent a helping hand in doing patrol duty acting as traffic directors, serving food and drink to those who were too busy to stop and eat, and the innumerable tasks which they performed at both Over-ton and London and the vari-ous cemeteries Saturday and Sunday.

(Overton Press, March 26, 1937)

FROM THE ARCHIVES ...

Boy Scout troop devastated

New London, March 29 - The roll was called today at the new London con-solidated school which 11 days ago was ripped apart by a terrific gas explosion. Only 287 children an-swered.

There were more than 1200 boys and girls to an-swer call March 18, but today 413 were buried among the pines and oil derricks. Others were in hospitals. Many remained at home, still terrified by

the thoughts of the fate that overtook their broth-ers, sisters and playmates.

'There was no compul-sion about attendance. No truant officer harried those who remained away. "We're opening the school for those who want to come," W.C. Shaw, the superintendent said. "For some the ordeal has proved too much. The loss of friends and rela-tives is too recent."

Shaw, whose son was

killed in the blast, stood on the campus as the yel-low buses arrived with the children brought from a 40-mile area. A light snow whipped in from the north, but the white blan-ket was not enough to cover the scars left when an accumula-tion of natu-ral gas in the school base-ment exploded.

(Reprinted from Overton Press dated in 1937)

School resumes

Last rites of Queen Price A Prayer for Those Who Mourn

Background image is a snapshot of vintage newspaper clippings on display at the London Museum


Walter Cronkite, who would anchor the “CBS Evening News” decades later and be considered the most trusted man in Ameri-ca, almost missed what would be his first big story.

As a young reporter he had just been transferred to the Dal-las office of the United Press and was manning the state wire on March 18, 1937, when the Lon-don School blew up.

In his autobiography, “A Re-porter’s Life,” Cronkite related that he planned to shut down the wire for that day when three bells sounded and he received a message from Houston.

Even so, he believed he could postpone transcribing the coded message and still planned to close the wire until the bell sounded yet again and he was exhorted, “Don’t close this wire!”

Cronkite discovered why when Houston reported that its con-tacts in the oil field said a school

exploded and as many ambu-lances as could, should respond to New London. Once he and the Dallas bureau manager found the town on the map, they departed to cover the inci-dent. Cronkite had no idea the scope of the tragedy until they

drove through Tyler and saw hearses, pickup trucks and am-bulances lined up for blocks to unload bodies at a funeral home.

Around dusk, he and his co-worker reached New London where Cronkite interviewed London School Superintendent W.C. Shaw. Shaw, who lost a son in the explosion, wept as he told of the district’s tapping into a company’s natural gas line to heat the buildings.

After Cronkite spent two days on the scene, a senior UP writer urged him to get some sleep that Sunday morning. When he slept in a twin bed in the Rusk Hotel in Overton, Cronkite thought he was sharing a room with a UP sports and features writer. He found out when he tried to thank the man later for the use of a shirt and shaving gear that he had, instead, roomed with a stranger.

In an excerpt from his autobi-

ography, “A Reporter’s Life,” published in 1996, Cronkite wrote:

"I did nothing in my studies nor in my life to prepare me for a

story of the magnitude of that New London tragedy nor has any story since that awful day equaled it."

Cub reporter Walter Cronkite covers explosion for United Press

A picture of Walter Cronkite taken around 1937. SOURCE: GOOGLE

A copy of one of Cronkite’s bylines on the disaster, writ-ten for the United Press.

tmfhc.org/75th

In 1937, the children and teachers of New London School started writing our story. Since that day, Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics has been faithful in delivering compassionate medical care to you – our neighbors, friends and family – in your most desperate time of need.

Your stories of trust, hope and healing are the reason we are still here. They give us purpose, so we may continue this remarkable journey of caring for generations to come. You are the foundation of our legacy.

Our Story75 Years in the MakingLearn more about our rich history at tmfhc.org/75th and watch a moving New London School feature presentation.



OVERTON - A Kilgore College retiree did not attend London School, but has connections to that campus which experienced the loss of hundreds of lives when an undetected gas leak ignited 75 years ago.

Jacqueline Reddic-Roy’s father, Money Preston Reddic, and his brother, Homer Lee Reddic, were working on the family farm off FM 850 when the explosion shook East Texas.

“They were working when they heard the blast and they tied the mules and went to the school. They went back later and the mules had run off,” she said. “They re-turned several days to help get people out. Our neighbors, the Thompsons, lost their daughter Mildred in the explosion.”

When Reddic-Roy was born May 22, a couple of months after the tragedy, her family paid tribute to one of the victims. “Mother picked my name from the list of the victims,” she said.

Jacqueline Cuvelier’s photo is near that of Mildred Thompson, the Reddics’ neigh-bor, in the photo album of those lost.

Below the pictures is the following epitaph:Our precious one from us has gone,A voice we love is stilled.A place is vacant in our home, Which never can be filled.God in His wisdom recalledYour boon nor love had given.And tho the body slumbers here.The soul is safe in Heaven. SOURCE: www.newlondonschool.org

KC retiree born months after tragedyshares name with one of the victims

TYLER – In 1937, a small group of dedicated women from the Catholic or-der of the Sisters of The Holy Family of Nazareth committed to bring a modern hospital to Tyler. Mother Frances Hospi-tal was scheduled to open on March 19. The opening day dedication that was planned never happened.

Mother Frances was called on to open one day early to care for victims of the New London school disaster.

Nearby, the staff of the Bryant Clinic, which later became Trinity Clinic, also responded to treat the injured.

In observance of the anniversary, Trin-ity Mother Frances will host events on March 18, 19 and 24.

On March 18, a special Mass will be held at 9 a.m. in the chapel on the cam-pus of Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler.

On March 19, David M. Brown, co-author of the recently published Gone at 3:17 (The Untold Story of the Worst

School Disaster in American History) will hold a public book signing in the lobby of Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler.

On March 24, a public celebration is scheduled from 1-3 p.m. at Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium. Health information, games and giveaways are included for all age groups. Additional private events are scheduled for employ-ees, staff and New London citizens and survivors.

“Mother Frances Hospital opened its doors a day ahead of schedule to care for the victims of the explosion,” said Lind-sey Bradley, FACHE, president of Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics. “There is an unbreakable bond that will forever be shared by the people of New London and everyone at Trinity Mother Frances. We are honored that survivors and representatives of the New London Museum will be with us to observe the 75th anniversary.”

TMF, New Londonshare ‘unbreakable bond’

A Day of Horror

and Ruin

To a Legacy of Hope and

RecoveryGrace Herald Baptist Church

Old London/New London Johnny Wright, pastorSunday School 10 a.m. Singing & Preaching 11 a.m.

Evening Service 6 p.m. Bible Study Wed. 7 p.m.903-834-3141 903-834-6796

We make you know we really mean itwhen we say, “We’re glad you came!”

P.O. Box 1265Kilgore, TX

903-984-5055EST . 1934


ry is told to them.”Telling this story primarily fell

to those who survived the inci-dent since the parents of those who died rarely, if ever, spoke of their grief. Organizers of the mu-seum recorded the memories of those left to tell the tale and still accept donations of journals, old newspapers and other items from the days following the blast.

The quality of the exhibits sur-prises those who tour the local museum. “They’re surprised that it’s not a rinky-dink museum. Most of them think a tour takes five minutes. They say it amazes them what’s back there,” Toler said. “I start (conducting) my tours with the school. I can talk about (oil) company houses just like some of our other volunteers: I lived in one all my life. We went to school and asked, ‘What oil company does your Daddy work for?’ “

“I’m still getting my arms around the (image of ) Mommies

and Daddies lifting up the sheets to look at mangled bodies. The story that gets me is the girl who jumped out a window and she didn’t jump out far enough, cut her leg on the broken glass and bled to death.”

For every tragic story is one with a happy ending. Elbert Box, the only survivor who lost a limb from his injuries, met his future wife while recuperating.

“He married his nurse he met over at Mother Frances (Hospi-tal). He stayed in the hospital for several months,” Toler said. “From what I understand, infection set in and that’s why they had to take off his leg.”

One man who never attended church prior to the school explo-sion bought a bus and started the first bus ministry for a London church after losing his son in the blast.

No two museum tours are alike, since the volunteers vary their comments and the questions from

visitors prompt different recollec-tions.

“There’s so many stories that aren’t back there,” he said of the museum. “Some come out in the tours. They’re characterized by questions people ask. I always use the story Gracie (Sands) told me. She went to 23 funerals in one day.

“They ran out of caskets. One Dad went to Crim’s (Funeral Home in Henderson) and waited on the caskets to come in. He put the boy’s name on a piece of paper on one and went in to pay for it.”

Toler’s wife lost a cousin and an uncle in the accident. “Her Dad-dy lost a brother who was in the shop where it started. He lived for a day and a half. I think it’s worse on the family, between trying to find them and sitting with them like that. I just think it’s probably easier to find them gone.”

As museum director, he works 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. five days a week. “I usually bring groceries (for the tea

room) on Sundays,” he said. “Last Sunday, I cut the back grass. We’re all doing something. Jean (David-son) covers Saturdays and does the catering. She doesn’t get enough credit.”

Around 20 volunteers keep the entity going and all but two are LHS exes. One goes to church with an ex-student and another one “who had to do community service for a college course stayed on after he completed the require-ment,” Toler said.

While they get visitors from across the country, he tries not to wonder how many local residents have yet to tour the facility. “I’d hate to know the number of peo-ple in New London who have never been in here,” he said. “We try to get the word out. Schools have helped. The catering has helped and so have Sunday school classes and the Red Hats.”

For more information, call the museum and tea room, (903) 895-4602.

MUSEUM n From Page 3

"Oil and natural gas are East Texas' greatest min-eral blessings. Without them this school would not be here and some of us would not be here, learn-ing our lessons." Those ironic words from a New London classroom black-board are preserved at the London Museum.

In Memory of the 75th Anniversary of March 18, 1937

West Rusk

County Consolidated

Independent School District

We Honor YouP. O. Box 168 New London, TX 75682 903-895-4428 FX 903-895-3367

From Total Destruction To Rebuilding

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